I 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 


THE   LIFE  OF 
ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 


BY 

CAROLINE  L.  HUNT 


WHITCOMB  &  BARROWS 
BOSTON,  1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1912 
BY   ROBERT   H.  RICHARDS 


•  •     •  •»• 

•  •      •     •»••        • 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE 

WHILE  there  are  many  recorded  instances  of 
friendship  between  author  and  publisher,  to  few 
firms  is  given  the  peculiarly  vital  relationship  that 
it  was  our  privilege  to  hold  with  Mrs.  Richards. 

Our  existence  as  a  firm  is  due  to  her  belief  in 
the  need  for  specialized  service  in  the  literature 
of  Home  Economics.  Our  first  publications  were 
her  books.  Through  seven  years  of  development  our 
best  business  asset  was  her  good  will. 

The  constant  and  innumerable  kindnesses  for 
which  we  are  indebted  to  Mrs.  Richards  throughout 
those  years  cannot  be  told.  To  publish  her  life  is 
therefore  a  fulfillment. 

WHITCOMB  &  BARROWS. 


n 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION       .....  xi 

I.      CHILDHOOD             .....  1 

II.      GIRLHOOD    .          .          .          .          .  16 

III.  AT  COLLEGE          .....  36 

IV.  AT  COLLEGE  (continued)           ...  59 
V.      STUDENT  OF  CHEMISTRY           ...  80 

VI.      IN  THE  LABORATORY       ....  96 

VII.     IN  HER  HOME Ill 

VIII.   .  THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY    ...  132 

IX.      TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE         .          .  152 

X.      BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS       .          .          .  171 

XI.      AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN          .          .          .  194 

XII.      MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE           .          .          .  215 

XIII.  IN  JOURNEYINGS  OFTEN                .              .              .  23? 

XIV.  LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE       .          .  259 
XV.      THE  HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT    .  280 

XVI.      FULLNESS  OF  LIFE           .          .  300 

XVII.      STILL  LEADING  ON                   ...  316 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Ellen  H.  Richards        ....  Frontispiece 

The  Swallow  Homestead       ....  2 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Swallow  .  .  6 

Ellen  Swallow      .....  10 

The  Prize  Handkerchief        .  .          .        12 

Ellen  Swallow      .......        22 

The  Store  at  Littleton  .....        26 

Ellen  Swallow      .  |  .          .          .          .          .        28 

"The  Lodge,"  Vassar  College      ....       36 

The  Willows,  Vassar  College          .          .          .          .50 

The  Observatory,  Vassar  College  ....        62 

Facsimile  of  Diary,  1870       .          .          .  .68 

Class  Picture,  Vassar  1870 78 

Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  ...        88 

The  Water  Laboratory 102 

Mrs.  Richards  at  Her  Desk  .          .          .          .108 

The  Porch  at  32  Eliot  Street          .          .          .          .118 
The  Dining  Room         .  .120 

The  Vine-Covered  Dining  Room    .  .122 

Woman's  Chemical  Laboratory       .  .      136 

Executive  Committee,  Naples  Table  Association      .      212 
The  New  England  Kitchen  218 

The  Rumford  Kitchen  224 

The  Balsams 

Lake  Placid  Club                                                                 •      *59 
At  Lake  Placid  264 


x  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Groups  of  Home  Economics  Workers      .  .  286 

Academic  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Richards        .  .          .  810 

Professor  and  Mrs.  Richards  ....  320 

Facsimile  of  a  Letter    ......  324 

Pen  and  Ink  Drawings  by 
George  H.  Bartlett  and  Mws  Ethel  U.  Bartlett 


INTRODUCTION 

ON  the  evening  of  the  second  of  April,  nineteen 
hundred  and  eleven,  a  group  of  friends  and  co- 
workers  of  Mrs.  Richards,  several  of  whom  had 
come  from  fa.r  distant  places  to  attend  her  funeral, 
met  at  the  College  Club  in  Boston. 

Gathered  together  under  the  shadow  of  their  great 
sorrow,  they  told  each  other  what  Mrs.  Richards 
had  done  for  them.  Each  had  a  characteristic  say- 
ing of  hers  to  repeat,  or  an  anecdote  illustrating 
her  unfailing  helpfulness  to  relate,  but  chiefly  they 
spoke  of  how  her  call  to  them  had  always  been  in 
the  direction  of  the  large  outgiving  life. 

Strangely  enough  the  outlook  even  at  that  time, 
so  soon  after  her  death,  was  not  backward,  but  for- 
ward. They  asked  even  then  what  they  could  do  to 
carry  on  the  work  that  she  had  laid  down.  As  the 
evening  wore  on,  the  suggestion  was  made  that  one 
way  of  doing  this  would  be  by  giving  permanent 
form  to  what  had  been  said  there  so  informally,  and 
the  hope  was  expressed  that  they  and  others  who 
had  known  the  inspiration  of  her  personal  influence 
might  have  an  opportunity  to  show  her  to  the  world 
as  they  had  seen  her. 

Professor  Richards,  hearing  of  this  conference, 
xi 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

asked  to  have  a  committee  of  persons  representing 
Mrs.  Richards's  various  interests  formed  for  the 
purpose  of  advising  with  him  about  the  preparation 
of  a  memorial  volume.  The  committee  was  formed 
with  Miss  Isabel  F.  Hyams  as  chairman,  to  whom, 
because  of  "a  daily  companionship  of  twenty  years 
which  had  sustained  hands  that  were  often  weary," 
Mrs.  Richards  had  dedicated  her  last  book.  Other 
members  were  Mrs.  Mary  Hinman  Abel,  editor  of 
the  Journal  of  Home  Economics;  Miss  Isabel  Bevier, 
who  succeeded  Mrs.  Richards  as  president  of  the 
American  Home  Economics  Association ;  Miss  Anna 
Barrows,  of  Teachers  College;  Miss  Florence  Gush- 
ing, who  represented  the  Associate  Alumnae  of  Vassar 
College  and  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae, 
and  who  had  been  a  student  in  the  Woman's  Labo- 
ratory; Mr.  James  P.  Munroe,  of  the  Corporation 
of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology; 
Miss  Frances  Stern,  who  had  been  Mrs.  Richards's 
secretary;  Miss  Lillian  Jameson,  also  secretary  to 
Mrs.  Richards ;  Miss  Jean  Swain,  to  whom  the  steno- 
graphic work  was  to  be  intrusted,  and  myself. 

The  result  of  the  conference  of  this  committee 
with  Professor  Richards,  and  of  his  earnest  desire 
to  smooth  out  all  financial  difficulties  of  the  under- 
taking in  order  that  he  might  share  with  others  the 
life-giving  influence  which  had  been  his  for  nearly 
forty  years,  was  a  determination  to  prepare  this 
volume. 


IXTROD  LOTION 


xiu 


In  response  to  a  request  for  material  which  might 
be  of  service,  many  letters  written  by  Mrs.  Richards 
were  received,  and  also  many  records  and  personal 
testimonies.  For  all  of  these  we  who  have  been  more 
closely  concerned  in  the  preparation  of  the  book 
wish  to  acknowledge  our  indebtedness.  We  hesitate, 
however,  to  express  our  thanks,  because  we  feel  that 
all,  near  and  far,  have  been  working  together  for 
one  end,  and  that  what  others  have  done  has  been 
not  for  us  but  for  her.  We  hesitate,  too,  to  name 
any  of  these  who  have  assisted  us  because  of  the 
hopelessness  of  naming  all.  A  few,  however,  must  be 
mentioned  here. 

We  are  indebted  to  Miss  Anna  A.  Swallow  and  to 
other  relatives  of  Mrs.  Richards  for  the  record  of 
her  early  life;  to  Mrs.  Laura  E.  Richards  and 
Miss  Rosalind  Richards  for  facts  about  her  personal 
and  home  life ;  to  her  classmates,  Mrs.  Flora  Hughes 
and  Miss  Anna  Mineah,  and  other  college  friends  for 
a  large  number  of  valuable  letters ;  to  the  Woman's 
Education  Association  of  Boston  for  permission  to 
examine  its  early  records;  to  Miss  Margaret  E.  Dodd 
for  bringing  to  light  many  facts  about  the  Studies 
at  Home;  to  Dean  Marion  Talbot  for  the  story  of 
her  connection  with  the  Association  of  Collegiate 
Alumna?;  to  Dr.  C.  F.  Langworthy  for  information 
about  her  connection  with  the  work  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture;  to  many  graduates  of  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  and  many  of 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

the  faculty  for  facts  concerning  her  connection  with 
that  institution;  to  Miss  Margaret  Maltby  for  many 
letters  written  by  Mrs.  Richards  during  her  later 
years ;  to  Miss  Louisa  P.  Hewins,  of  Jamaica  Plain, 
a  friend  whom  circumstances  made  the  companion  of 
her  leisure  rather  than  of  her  labors,  for  the  story 
of  many  of  her  lighter  moments.  These  are  but  a 
few  of  those  who  have  helped ;  how  far  we  have  fallen 
short  of  acknowledging  our  full  indebtedness  the 
text  will  indicate  by  showing  the  breadth  of  her 
activities  and  how  far  our  researches  have  necessarily 
extended. 

Editors,  revisers,  stenographer,  publishers,  illus- 
trator, printer,  all  of  whom  came  under  her  influ- 
ence, have  worked  together  to  prepare  this  book  as 
a  memorial  to  her.  If  it  is  lacking  in  unity  because 
of  this  wide  cooperation,  it  must  surely  approach 
more  nearly  to  completeness. 

CAROLINE  L.   HUNT. 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 


CHAPTER    I 

CHILDHOOD 

THE  unseen  and  the  untried  have  ever  lured 
adventurous  and  courageous  spirits,  calling  forth 
in  every  age  explorers,  who  have  this  in  common 
that  they  set  forth  with  glad  feet  and  expectant 
faces  toward  that  which  lies  beyond  the  knowledge 
or  experience  of  their  times.  But  that  which  they 
seek,  whether  it  shall  be  an  undiscovered  country, 
a  new  field  of  knowledge,  or  an  untried  way  of 
living,  is  determined  by  inner  impulses  and  outward 
circumstances.  These  unite  to  create  multiple  forms 
of  the  exploring  type. 

The  girl-child  of  adventurous  spirit  born  to  rural 
New  England  during  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  naturally  chose  as  her  field  of  exploration 
new  modes  of  helpfulness  and  of  service.  This  choice 
was  almost  inevitable  at  that  time  in  that  region, 
for  earnestness,  conscientiousness,  and  unyielding 
devotion  to  duty  were  breathed  in  with  the  air  of 
puritan  New  England,  and  self-sacrifice  was  de- 
manded of  women  both  by  tradition  and  by  public 
opinion.  But  many  of  the  older  forms  of  labor 
which  had  been  women's  contribution  to  family  and 

1 


2  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

community  life  were  being  rendered  unnecessary, 
while  at  the  same  time  enlarging  means  of  communi- 
cation and  widening  educational  opportunities  were 
opening  to  them  a  whole  new  world,  and  were  sug- 
gesting to  those  who  happened  to  be  of  adventurous 
spirit  the  presence  of  fresh  fields  of  usefulness  lying 
beyond  the  vision  and  waiting  to  be  explored.  Inner 
impulses  toward  pioneering,  as  well  as  those  toward 
helpfulness,  were  likely  in  rural  New  England  seventy 
years  ago  to  be  quickened  by  the  outward  conditions 
of  life. 

Into  these  changing  social  conditions  Ellen  Swallow 
was  born  on  a  New  England  farm  at  a  time  not  far 
from  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  As  she  grew, 
her  two  most  marked  physical  characteristics,  a 
steadfast  look  from  large,  thoughtful  gray  eyes,  and 
a  quickness  of  motion  and  of  speech,  came  to  be  the 
outward  evidences  of  the  two  great  passions  of  her 
life — a  longing  for  usefulness  and  a  love  of  pioneer- 
ing. These  passions  her  early  life  in  an  isolated 
community  and  among  profoundly  religious  people 
doubtless  tended  to  strengthen  and  intensify.  She 
was  destined  to  give  herself  for  others,  but  to  do  it 
in  unique  ways,  and  after  the  fashion  of  explorers, 
joyously  and  enthusiastically,  so  that  the  record  of 
her  life  and  labors  is  the  story  of  happy  excursions 
into  fresh  fields  of  service. 

The  Swallow  homestead,  where  she  was  born,  was 
situated  near  the  village  of  Dunstable,  which  is  part 


CHILDHOOD  3 

of  a  town  of  the  same  name  in  Northern  Massachu- 
setts, on  the  New  Hampshire  line.  From  the  place 
where  the  old  home  once  stood  one  may  look  out 
over  the  fields  to  a  small  burying  ground  where 
Ensign  John  Swallow,  who  died  in 
the  year  1776,  lies  buried.  ^,.£ 
"Ensign  John,"  as 


The  Swallow  Homestead 

his  descendants  fondly  call  him,  was  the  first  of  the 
Swallow  name  to  find  his  way  to  the  little  settlement 
of  Dunstable,  in  whose  records  his  name  frequently 
appears.  He  was  the  grandson  of  Ambrose  Swallow, 
who  was  born  in  England,  but  who  was  living  in 
Massachusetts  as  early  as  1666.  There  is  a  tradition 
that  the  Swallow  family  had  earlier  married  into  a 
French  family  named  Larnard.  If  this  be  true,  and 


-I 
ft 


ELLEN    HL    RICHARDS 
T  ii*  fact  tfcat  *n*nl  of 


km 


TTLT  T: 


•  1674. 


to  tfe  dbj 


M 


.     .  .     .  -^7^. 

ndto 


CHILDHOOD  5 

proceed  with  the  building  of  the  meeting  house.  In 
that  generation  affairs  of  the  spirit  were  considered 
to  be  the  concern  of  the  whole  community. 

But  troublous  times  were  in  store  for  the  little 
band  of  settlers  in  Dunstable,  for  the  town,  having 
been  cut  from  a  wilderness  and  lying  at  the  farthest 
point  which  the  tide  of  immigration  following  the 
Merrimac  River  had  reached,  was  in  an  exposed  posi- 
tion, and  the  inhabitants  were  continually  attacked, 
not  only  by  Indians,  but  also  by  wild  beasts.  We 
read  that  in  1688  Samuel  Gould  was  appointed  dog 
whipper  for  the  meeting  house,  an  office  which  was 
indispensable  because  the  settlers  were  obliged  to 
take  their  dogs  to  church  with  them  for  protection. 
So  fierce  were  the  attacks  of  the  Indians  that  the 
population  was  at  one  time  reduced  to  a  single  per- 
son, the  remainder  having  been  killed  or  having  fled 
to  places  of  safety.  But  the  pioneers  were  not  to  be 
vanquished.  Those  who  had  fled  speedily  returned, 
and  having  fortified  their  houses  brought  back  their 
families.  From  that  time  on  the  population  steadily 
increased ;  not  very  rapidly,  however,  for  by  the  year 
1753,  when  Ensign  John  cast  his  lot  with  the  town, 
its  inhabitants  numbered  only  two  hundred  and  fifty. 
But  though  few  in  number  they  were  great  in  spirit, 
for  in  winning  the  wilderness  and  converting  it  into 
fertile  farms,  in  removing  the  bowlders  with  which 
the  fields  were  strewn,  and  which  an  early  history  of 
the  town  says  "were  doubtless  placed  there  by  a 


6  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

Titanic  force  for  a  beneficent  purpose,"  and  in  ward- 
ing off  attacks  of  their  enemies,  they  had  grown  a 
sturdy  and  courageous  people. 

Ensign  John's  desire  to  see  the  gospel  well  settled 
in  Dunstable  was  evidently  taken  seriously,  for  he 
was  almost  immediately  appointed  a  member  of  a 
committee  to  complete  the  meeting  house  by  supply- 
ing it  with  "26  windows,  23  of  sd  windows  to  Be 
24  squares  of  glass  in  Each  window,  the  2  gavel  End 
windows  to  Be  15  squairs  Each  &  the  pulpit  window 
to  be  Left  to  the  Descretion  of  the  parish  committe." 
It  was  he,  too,  who  in  1757  built  the  house  which 
was  the  birthplace  of  successive  generations  of  the 
Swallow  family.  This  house  stood  until  1882,  when 
it  was  burned  to  the  ground  and  replaced  by  another 
on  nearly  the  same  site,  which  is  still  occupied  by 
one  branch  of  the  family.  Ensign  John's  son,  Peter, 
was  one  of  a  little  band  of  men  which  Dunstable  gave 
out  of  her  poverty  to  serve  in  the  War  of  Independ- 
ence. He  had  a  son  Archelaus,  and  Archelaus's  son, 
Peter,  was  the  father  of  Ellen. 

Peter  Swallow,  the  second,  was  born  on  June  27, 
1813,  the  oldest  child  of  Archelaus  and  Susanna 
Kendall  Swallow.  Having  scholarly  tastes,  he  early 
began  to  look  about  him  for  an  education,  and  by 
good  fortune  he  was  led  to  the  academy  at  New 
Ipswich,  New  Hampshire.  The  good  fortune  was  his 
and  also  the  world's,  for  it  was  in  New  Ipswich  that 
he  found  his  future  wife,  Fanny  Gould  Taylor,  and 


o     5 


CHILDHOOD  7 

there  the  two  families  from  which  Ellen  Swallow 
was  to  draw  her  strength  and  power  were  united. 
Mr.  Swallow  and  Miss  Taylor  were  married  on 
May  9,  1839,  and  on  December  3,  1842,  their  only 
child,  Ellen  Henrietta,  was  born. 

Before  as  well  as  after  graduating  from  the 
academy,  Mr.  Swallow  taught  in  the  neighboring 
towns  of  Pepperell,  Tyngsborough,  and  Nashua,  and 
one  certificate  of  fitness  to  teach  shows  that  when 
nineteen  years  old  he  traveled  as  far  from  home  as 
Western  Ohio.  After  his  marriage  he  made  his  home 
in  one  end  of  his  father's  house,  and  in  1845  his 
father  deeded  to  him  half  the  farm  and  half  the 
house.  For  ten  or  twelve  years  he  followed  the 
double  occupation  of  teaching  and  farming,  occupa- 
tions which  demanded  his  time  during  most  of  the 
year,  but  left  leisure  in  the  early  spring.  The  month 
of  March  was  often  spent  by  him  and  his  family 
in  trips  to  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  or  Maine  for 
the  purpose  of  visiting  relatives.  These  journeys 
were  made  by  team,  and  as  they  were  taken  at  the 
time  of  year  when  the  roads  were  likely  to  be  worst, 
they  were  full  of  adventure.  Fifty  years  afterwards 
his  daughter  wrote:  "One  of  my  earliest  recollections 
is  of  my  father's  reply  to  my  mother's  anxiety  lest 
we  should  get  overturned  in  the  sleigh  on  the  snow- 
drifted  country  roads — 'Where  any  one  else  has 
been,  there  I  can  go.'  "  "This,"  she  continued,  "is 
not  a  bad  working  motto,  but  adventurous  spirits 


\ 


8  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

go  beyond  this  and  do  what  has  never  been  done 
before,"  which  expresses  well  the  quality  of  adven- 
turesomeness  and  love  of  exploration  which  in  the 
daughter  was  added  to  the  will  and  courage  inherited 
from  her  father. 

Mr.   Swallow  remained  on  the  farm  until  1859, 

when   for   the   purpose   of  giving  his   daughter   an 

I    academy    education    he   moved    to    the    neighboring 

I    town  of  Westford  and  opened  a  store.     From  that 

time  until  his  sudden  death  in  1871,  he  was  engaged 

in  one  form  or  another  of  trade ;  but  whether  because 

his  interests  were  in  books  rather  than  in  business, 

or  for  some  other  reason,  he  seems  never  to  have 

been  very  successful. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  by 
Ellen  Swallow  to  her  mother  while  she  was  at  Vassar 
gives  a  clew  to  one  of  her  father's  characteristics : 

"I  think  father  would  be  delighted  to  see  Miss 
Mitchell  lecturing  me,  as  she  did  this  morning, 
because  I  ignored  the  one  one-hundredth  of  a  second 
in  an  astronomical  calculation.  'While  you  are 
doing  it,  you  might  as  well  do  it  to  a  nicety.' '  It 
\  is  said  that  no  household  task  in  the  Swallow  family 
i  was  ever  performed  with  such  nicety  as  to  meet  with 
the  father's  unreserved  approval.  And  yet  this  in- 
terest in  details  seems  not  to  have  been  associated 
in  him,  as  it  often  is,  with  narrowness  of  vision,  for 
he  was  his  daughter's  most  ardent  supporter  in  her 
efforts  to  gain  a  college  education  and  a  scientific 


CHILDHOOD  9 

training  at  a  time  when  such  education  and  training 
were  almost  unknown  among  women. 

Ellen  Swallow's  mother,  Fanny  Gould  Taylor,  was 
born  in  New  Ipswich  on  April  9,  1817,  the  fourth 
daughter  and  sixth  child  of  Samuel  Taylor  and 
Persis  Jones.  She  was  descended  on  her  father's  side 
from  William  Taylor,  who  came  to  this  country  from 
England  about  1640,  and  after  prospecting  a  little 
settled  in  Concord,  Massachusetts,  where  several 
generations  of  his  descendants  tilled  the  soil.  It  was 
her  grandfather,  Thaddeus  Taylor,  who  first  came 
to  New  Ipswich.  In  the  middle  of  the  winter  of 
1776,  with  his  wife,  Bridget  Walton,  and  four  small 
children,  he  moved  into  an  unfinished  house  on  a  hill 
in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  town.  Here  the 
family  endured  great  hardship  while  the  home  was 
being  finished  and  the  "rough  and  rocky  farm 
subdued."  In  this  house  "over  the  mountains," 
as  it  was  described  in  a  history  of  New  Ipswich, 
Mrs.  Swallow  was  born. 

The  Taylor  family  and  many  of  the  families  into 
which  it  married  showed  a  remarkable  tendency 
toward  longevity.  Mrs.  Swallow's  father  lived  to 
be  eighty-one  and  her  mother  to  be  eighty-eight. 
Thaddeus  Taylor,  the  grandfather,  was  eighty-one 
when  he  died  and  his  wife  eighty-five.  The  ages  of 
six  of  their  nine  children  averaged  over  ninety  years 
at  the  time  of  death,  and  one  son,  Oliver  Swain 
Taylor,  lived  to  be  four  months  over  one  hundred 


10  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

years  of  age.  Lydia  Treadway,  the  grandmother 
of  Mrs.  Swallow's  mother,  lived  to  be  ninety-four 
and  to  gather  about  her  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  descendants.  It  may  be  that  this  tendency 
toward  long  life  was  in  some  way  transmuted  into 
that  wonderful  physical  endurance  which  carried 
Ellen  Swallow  through  a  delicate  childhood,  and  later 
made  it  seem  as  if  she  were  living  the  lives  of  ten 
people  and  incidentally  doing  their  work. 

Deft  and  dainty  were  the  adjectives  most  often 
applied  to  Mrs.  Swallow.  To  her  dexterity,  which 
was  shown  in  all  traditionally  feminine  occupations, 
may  doubtless  be  traced  the  carefulness  of  manipu- 
lation which  helped  to  make  her  daughter  successful 
in  one  of  the  most  exacting  of  all  forms  of  chemical 
work,  water  analysis.  The  mother's  daintiness  in 
dress  impressed  all  who  saw  her,  even  in  later 
years,  when  sickness  and  suffering  would  have  made 
carelessness  excusable. 

From  references  to  Ellen  in  letters  received  by 
her  father  and  mother  during  her  childhood,  we  may 
infer  that  she  was  one  of  those  active  yet  dainty 
little  creatures  upon  whose  quick,  quiet  motions  it  is 
always  a  delight  for  grown  people  to  look.  "How 
is  little  Ellen?"  one  cousin  wrote.  "I  often  think  of 
her;  what  a  pretty,  interesting,  amusing  little  thing 
she  is."  And  another:  "I  wish  she  were  here;  I 
should  like  no  better  plaything." 

As   she  grew,   she   came  perilously   near  being  a 


ELLEN  SWALLOW 

iluyueiveotyfn'  ink,  n  <tl,»nt 


CHILDHOOD  11 

tomboy,  if,  in  fact,  she  did  not  quite  step  over  the 
line.  This  was  a  sore  trial  to  her  mother,  who 
wished  to  train  the  little  feet  to  walk  demurely, 
and  the  hands  to  love  indoor  and  feminine  occupa- 
tions. But  fortunately  there  came  along  a  wise 
physician,  who,  noticing  the  frailty  of  the  child, 
said  that  if  she  were  to  grow  to  womanhood  she 
must  be  allowed  to  run  freely  in  the  open  air;  and 
from  that  time  forward  she  followed  her  natural 
bent,  spending  most  of  her  time  out  of  doors  with 
her  father  and  her  uncles  on  the  farm.  She  rode 
the  horses,  drove  the  cows  to  pasture,  and  pitched 
hay.  Two  little  stone  posts  still  standing  mark  the 
gateway  of  her  own  garden,  which  she  made  and 
tended.  In  after  years  she  used  to  say  that  there 
was  one  form  of  farm  work  only  which  she  had 
never  done.  To  her  great  sorrow  her  mother  would 
not  permit  her  to  milk  the  cows,  for  fear  her  hands 
would  grow  large  and  unbeautiful. 

Mrs.  Swallow,  like  her  husband,  had  been  educated 
at  the  academy  in  New  Ipswich.  Between  her  and 
her  daughter  there  must  have  been  a  keen  intellectual 
sympathy,  for  when  in  college  Ellen  painstakingly 
outlined  for  her  mother  at  home  books  which  she 
had  read  and  lectures  and  sermons  to  which  she  had 
listened.  But  there  was  also  a  fundamental  differ- 
ence of  opinion  as  to  what  came  within  a  woman's 
sphere.  In  one  of  the  letters  written  from  college, 
Ellen  told  of  an  address  made  by  a  student  on 


12  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

Founder's  Day.  This  brought  forth  a  vigorous 
protest  from  the  mother,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
she  had  been  assured  that  the  audience  consisted 
exclusively  of  faculty  and  fellow-students,  and  that 
the  description  of  the  youthful  orator,  "dressed  in 
black  with  a  lavender  bow,  her  hair  dressed  plainly, 
and  wearing  white  kid  gloves,"  made  a  picture  of 
preeminent  feminine  propriety. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Ellen's  predilections 
were  for  outdoor  life  and  strenuous  pursuits,  house- 
hold tasks  were  not  neglected.  By  the  age  of  thirteen 
she  had,  under  the  tutelage  of  her  mother,  mastered 
the  housekeeping  arts  which  in  later  years  she  valued 
so  highly  that  she  sought  to  have  them  embodied  in 
the  curricula  of  the  schools.  The  sheets  and  pillow- 
cases of  a  toy  bed  daintily  hemstitched,  a  pair  of 
silk  stockings,  and  a  beautifully  embroidered  hand- 
kerchief for  which  she  took  a  prize  at  a  country 
fair,  when  she  was  only  thirteen  years  old,  still 
testify  to  her  skill;  while  a  china  vase,  which  was  a 
prize  offered  at  the  same  fair  for  the  best  loaf  of 
bread,  bears  silent  witness  to  her  early  accomplish- 
ments as  a  cook. 

Her  father  and  mother,  both  well  educated  for 
the  times,  and  both  having  been  teachers,  were 
extremely  critical  of  the  incumbents  of  the  village 
school,  and  except  upon  rare  occasions  they  in- 
structed the  child  themselves.  Her  early  years, 
therefore,  were  passed  chiefly  within  her  home,  varied 


THK    I'HIXK    I1A\I)KKH<  HIEF 

"By  tin-  ant-  of  th'n-ti-i-n  «/,>•  Inn!  i,u,xt<-ml  the  housekeeping  arts, 
in  l,,t,;-  IWOTJ  «!„•  ,-„/„,-//  .s-o  highly  Hint  she  sought  to  have 
them  embodied  in  the  curricula  of  the  schools" 


CHILDHOOD  13 

by  occasional  visits  at  the  farm  of  her  uncle,  Still- 
man  Swallow,  in  Nashua,  whose  daughter  Annie  was 
her  most  intimate  associate  during  her  girlhood  and 
young  womanhood.  Here,  besides  enjoying  the 
companionship  of  a  large  family  of  children,  she 
took  great  delight  in  the  high-bred  horses  with 
which  the  farm  was  stocked. 

Her  love  of  animals  and  her  sympathy  with  them 
must  have  begun  very  early  in  life.  In  fact,  some 
of  the  first  outpourings  of  her  generous  and  helpful 
spirit  seem  to  have  been  toward  pets.  One  of  the 
products  of  her  mother's  skillful  fingers  were  little 
white  cotton  rabbits,  which  found  their  way  into 
many  homes  to  the  delight  of  children.  When  Ellen 
was  four  years  old  she  broke  her  arm.  After  it  had 
been  put  into  splints,  her  mother  found  her  out 
upon  the  grass  one  day,  supporting  herself  upon 
her  uninjured  arm  and  painfully  pulling  grass  for 
the  cotton  rabbits  with  the  other. 

Dunstable,  during  the  time  of  Ellen  Swallow's 
childhood,  had  a  population  of  about  five  hundred 
and  fifty,  scattered  over  a  territory  of  sixteen  and 
a  half  miles,  not  more  than  one  hundred  of  them 
living  in  the  near-by  village.  It  had  no  railway  until 
1850.  Then  the  Worcester  and  Nashua  cut  across 
its  western  portion,  but  made  no  stop  within  the 
town.  It  was  not  until  long  after  she  left  that  rail- 
way connection  was  established  with  other  parts  of 
New  England.  In  this  isolated  place  she  grew  up, 


14  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

among  an  industrious  and  religious  people.  It  was 
a  fortunate  childhood  in  many  ways,  for  while  her 
body  was  being  gradually  strengthened  by  out-of- 
door  life,  her  mind  was  being  stimulated  by  her  home 
associations. 

She  was  sixteen  years  old  when  her  father  sold 
his  farm  in  Dunstable,  and  became  the  proprietor 
of  the  village  store  in  Westford.  A  friend  who 
knew  her  during  the  Westford  years  says  that  her 
young  companions  always  considered  her  a  mem- 
ber of  the  firm,  so  active  was  her  interest  and  so 
unfailing  the  help  which  she  gave  her  father.  We 
may  therefore  consider  the  move  from  Dunstable 
to  Westford  to  be  the  dividing  line  between  a  care- 
free childhood  and  a  young  womanhood  of  purpose- 
ful preparation  for  a  life  work  toward  which  her 
steadfast  gaze  was  always  set,  even  when  its  outlines 
were  least  clearly  defined. 

The  road  from  the  Swallow  farm  to  Westford 
leads  past  the  cluster  of  houses  and  the  little  church 
which  form  the  village  of  Dunstable,  and  passing 
through  the  pine  woods  suddenly  comes  out  upon  an 
open  space,  across  which  the  academy  on  the  high 
land  at  Westford  comes  into  view.  This  was  the 
road  which  Ellen  Swallow  traveled  in  April,  1859. 
With  the  strength  and  the  courage  of  her  fathers 
which  had  been  bred  in  the  stern  realities  of  pioneer 
life,  with  their  faith  which  had  seen  a  beneficent 
Providence  even  in  the  rocks  with  which  their  paths 


CHILDHOOD 


15 


had  been  strewn,  and  with  a  spirit  tuned  to  the 
beauty  of  the  quiet  landscape  and  of  the  pines,  she 
set  forth,  and  as  she  traveled,  suddenly  the  way 
opened  before  her,  and  there  on  the  heights  beyond 
she  caught  glimpses  of  opportunity. 


CHAPTER    II 

GIRLHOOD 

THE  periods  into  which  life  naturally  divides 
itself — those  of  preparation  and  education,  of 
active  labor,  and  of  decline — are  least  clearly 
marked  in  lives  of  greatest  power  and  most  earnest 
purpose.  For  great  power  is  likely  to  show  itself 
in  useful  labor  during  the  years  which  are  usually 
given  to  education,  and  earnest  purpose  persists  to 
the  end,  carrying  with  it  the  demand  for  continued 
training.  Thus  dividing  lines  are  obscured. 

If  Ellen  Swallow  had  been  a  person  of  only 
average  energy  and  average  strength  of  purpose, 
we  might  now  be  able  to  speak  of  her  days  at 
Westford  as  a  period  given  to  education,  and  to 
point  to  the  places  which  were  most  intimately 
connected  with  her  life  there  and  say:  "Here  at  the 
academy  on  the  Common  she  was  educated;  there  in 
the  little  store  across  the  way  her  father  worked 
to  support  his  family  and  to  educate  his  daughter; 
and  there  a  short  distance  down  the  orchard-lined 
street,  in  the  white  house  among  the  flowers,  her 
mother  made  the  family  home."  But  so  great  was 
her  energy  and  so  independent  her  spirit,  that  she 

16 


GIRLHOOD  17 

not  only  took  an  important  part  in  the  home- 
making,  but  also  insisted  upon  helping  to  raise  the 
money  for  her  own  education.  Naturally  quicker 
than  her  father,  and  with  a  greater  aptitude  for  the 
details  of  business,  she  became  his  constant  assistant 
in  the  store.  At  the  same  time  her  mother  and  she, 
freed  from  the  harder  labor  which  farm  life  brings 
to  women,  found  time  from  their  housework  to  make 
the  little  home  bud  and  blossom  with  the  flowers  of 
which  they  both  were  passionately  fond.  During 
the  Westford  period,  therefore,  she  took  a  real  part 
in  the  work  which  was  going  on  about  her,  and  was 
not  removed  from  it  for  purposes  of  education. 
These  years,  instead  of  being  given  wholly  to  prepa- 
ration, represent  rather  one  stage  of  her  developing 
power,  one  phase  of  the  unfolding  of  a  life  in  which 
labor  and  preparation  for  greater  labor  always 
went  side  by  side. 

Picking  up  the  thread  of  her  life  at  the  time  of 
its  greatest  complexity,  when  activity  was  greatest 
and  interests  most  numerous,  we  are  surprised  to 
find  how  many  of  its  strands  may  be  traced  back 
to  childhood  or  girlhood.  Of  these  the  most  persist- 
ent, that  which  stretched  straightest  and  strongest 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  and  around  which 
all  other  interests  twined,  was  the  love  of  home. 
To  the  separate  household  arts  which  she  had 
learned  to  perfection  during  her  childhood,  she 
added  in  girlhood  the  art  of  household  management, 


18  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

and  during  her  mother's  frequent  sicknesses  she 
had  full  charge  of  the  home.  She  cooked,  washed, 
ironed,  cleaned  house,  papered  rooms,  and  laid 
carpets.  Those  who  heard  her  lecture  in  later 
years  on  subjects  related  to  home-making,  often 
took  it  for  granted  that,  being  a  chemist,  she  spoke 
from  theory  and  not  from  practical  experience;  but 
as  a  matter  of  fact  there  was  no  household  task 
which  she  could  not  perform  as  well  as  any  one 
whom  she  employed.  When  she  became  an  expert 
in  an  important  branch  of  science,  she  added  her 
knowledge  of  sanitation  to  her  skill  in  housekeeping, 
and  brought  both  to  the  service  of  her  home. 

Closely  connected  with  love  of  home  was  another 
interest  which  found  its  place  almost  as  early  in 
her  life  and  also  continued  to  the  end.  This  was 
the  passion  for  flowers  which  she  shared  with  her 
mother.,  There  are  few  letters  from  mother  to 
daughter  or  from  daughter  to  mother  which  do  not 
j  contain  some  inquiry  as  to  the  welfare  of  the  plants, 
some  statement  as  to  their  progress,  some  hope 
expressed  as  to  the  blossoms  to  come,  or  some  enu- 
meration of  blossoms  which  had  already  appeared. 
Friends  at  a  distance,  too,  seem  always  to  have 
thought  of  mother  and  daughter  among  their  house 
plants  or  in  the  garden. 

While  still  a  girl  she  wrote  to  her  cousin  Annie: 

"Please   tell   Lucy   that   my   coliseum    [ivy]    has 
grown  finely,  has  been  in  blossom  ever  since  she  was 


GIRLHOOD  19 

here.  A  few  days  ago  I  counted  thirty  blossoms 
and  fifty  buds.  I  will  send  a  blossom  if  I  don't 
forget  it.  I  have  made  a  basket  for  the  ivy  and 
hung  it  in  the  window.  It  has  also  been  in  blossom 
several  weeks.  I  wish  you  could  come  and  stay  with 
me  a  few  weeks ;  our  bracing  air  would  do  you  good. 
You  have  no  idea  how  pretty  our  village  looks  in  its 
summer  dress.  We  have  so  many  shade  trees  in  the 
streets,  and  so  many  pretty  orchards  beside  them, 
that  at  this  time  it  is  really  a  charming  spot." 

At  a  later  time  she  wrote : 

"The  ivy  that  I  had  from  your  house  covers  the 
whole  window  and  is  in  full  bloom.  It  is  the  admi- 
ration of  all.  Our  calla  is  magnificent;  our  Mobile 
amaryllis  (we  call  it  so  in  distinction  from  the  com- 
mon one  because  ours  came  from  Mobile)  is  budded, 
and  I  expect  will  be  well  worth  seeing.  Our  common 
amaryllis  is  not  going  to  bloom  at  present.  Our 
salvia  is  splendid;  the  little  blush  rose  has  had  two 
great  roses  at  once;  the  pink  one  has  been  in  bloom 
and  now  has  eighteen  buds,  nine  on  one  new  sprout. 
We  have  beautiful  heliotrope.  I  have  a  little  silver- 
leaf  geranium  about  three  inches  high,  which  is 
budded.  Won't  it  be  a  little  darling?  We  have 
part  of  our  plants  in  the  store.  People  take  so 
much  notice  of  them  that  father  is  willing  to  have 
the  trouble  of  them  and  has  taken  a  great  interest 
in  taking  care  of  them ;  has  done  more  of  it  than  he 
ever  did  before.  I  think  he  would  rebel  as  strongly 
as  any  of  us  now  to  be  deprived  of  them." 


20  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

Beginning  in  girlhood  too,  and  continuing  as 
long  as  she  lived,  was  a  fondness  for  fiction,  which 
was  probably  allied  to  her  love  of  pleasant  explora- 
tion and  due  to  the  eagerness  with  which  her  mind 
went  out  to  every  phase  of  life.  She  climbed  with 
zest  the  difficult  paths  of  science,  but  she  also  walked 
with  pleasure  the  easier  paths  of  romance.  The 
friends  of  her  busier  years  have  a  picture  of  her  as, 
comfortably  seating  herself  in  a  street  car,  she  took 
a  novel  from  her  pocket  or  bag  and  became  lost  to 
the  world  about  her;  or  as,  the  work  of  a  long  day 
over,  she  drew  a  footstool  to  a  warm  spot  beside 
fireplace  or  register  and  found  in  a  story  complete 
mental  relaxation,  which  prepared  the  way  for  sound 
and  restful  slumber.  It  would  be  easy  to  think  that 
,  this  habit  was  acquired  in  the  years  of  her  greatest 
activity  for  the  purpose  of  freeing  herself  at  times 
from  the  pressure  of  care,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
it  dated  back  to  girlhood.  Her  uncle,  Mr.  George  W. 
Taylor,  writing  after  her  death,  says :  "  Ellen  had 
become  at  about  twelve  years  old  a  rapid  reader, 
and  was  spending  much  of  her  time  in  reading  works 
of  fiction.  I  then  said  to  her  that  I  thought  she 
better  stop  reading  so  much  fiction  and  take  up  the 
study  of  more  meritorious  work." 

That  she  had  some  misgivings  herself  is  shown 
by  a  prim  little  composition  upon  the  subject  of 
"Gathering  Pebbles,"  which  was  written  during  her 
school  life  in  Westford.  After  telling  how  she 


GIRLHOOD  21 

wandered  for  one  whole  afternoon  by  the  seashore 
picking  up  stones,  she  adds:  "Do  not  many  people 
spend  precious  hours  in  gathering  pebbles  and  only 
pebbles  from  other  places  than  the  seashore?  When 
in  our  school  days  we  idle  away  our  time  in  all  the 
various  ways  that  only  scholars  can  find,  linger  too 
long  over  some  enchanting  book,  lay  aside  the  text- 
book for  the  story  because  we  do  not  feel  like  study, 
are  we  not  simply  gathering  pebbles  which  look 
bright,  but  will  fade  when  we  look  back  in  after 
years,  and  think  how  much  more  we  might  have 
accomplished  ?  " 

But  the  truth  is  that  the  reading  of  fiction  never 
interfered  with  her  other  interests  and  pursuits,  for 
she  read  with  lightning  rapidity,  and  could  so  sail 
off  on  the  current  of  the  story  as  to  forget  all  her 
worries  and  return  completely  rested  and  ready  for 
further  work.  And  from  no  novel,  not  even  one  of 
small  literary  merit,  did  she  ever  fail  to  get  some 
little  suggestion  which  helped  her  to  solve  a  practical 
problem,  or  some  thought  which  could  be  woven  into 
the  philosophy  of  her  life. 

To  the  training  she  received  in  the  store,  which 
began  with  waiting  on  customers  and  gradually 
enlarged  itself  to  include  the  keeping  of  accounts 
and  the  purchase  of  goods  for  which  purpose  she 
often  made  trips  to  Boston,  as  well  as  to  her  natural 
quickness  of  perception,  may  be  traced  the  busi- 
ness ability  which  led  to  her  being  intrusted  in  her 


22  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

maturer  years  with  large  sums  of  money  for  all  kinds 
of  educational  and  philanthropic  enterprises. 

Life  behind  the  counter,  however,  valuable  as  it 
doubtless  was  as  a  means  of  discipline  and  education, 
and  important  as  its  bearing  was  upon  her  later 
work,  was  not  all  roses.  The  store  being  of  the 
kind  known  as  a  general  store,  she  was  obliged  to 
sell  tobacco,  which  she  hated.  It  is  said  that  at  one 
time  a  group  of  men  who  had  bought  tobacco  of  her, 
filled  and  lighted  their  pipes  in  the  store,  seating 
themselves  around  the  stove  according  to  the  usual 
custom.  When  the  youthful  storekeeper  objected, 
they  said,  "Why  do  you  sell  us  tobacco  if  you  don't 
expect  us  to  smoke  it?"  "We  sell  you  molasses, 
too,"  she  replied  quickly,  "but  we  don't  expect  you 
to  stay  here  and  cook  it  up." 

Two  women  customers,  one  of  whom  insisted  upon 
having  saleratus  because  she  never  could  cook  with 
soda,  the  other  of  whom  demanded  soda  because 
saleratus  did  not  make  good  biscuits,  and  who  hav- 
ing been  supplied  from  the  same  package  were  both 
satisfied  and  both  confirmed  in  their  original  opinion, 
may  have  amused  her  at  the  time,  but  they  probably 
inspired  her  with  a  desire  to  look  more  deeply  into 
the  nature  of  the  things  with  which  she  was  dealing, 
and  may  well  have  directed  her  thoughts  toward 
scientific  study. 

Records  of  her  life  in  Westford,  though  meager, 
show  that  her  love  of  adventure  was  leading  her 


I  KOM     A     DAGIKRKKOTYHK    TAKKN     AIHH'T     IH.'jH 


GIRLHOOD  23 

into  ever  widening  circles  of  investigation.  While 
in  the  academy,  she  spent  her  vacation  with  friends 
at  Lynn  who  had  a  store  from  which  they  supplied 
groceries  to  the  large  houses  at  Nahant  and  else- 
where along  the  fashionable  North  Shore.  While 
on  these  visits,  it  was  her  greatest  delight  to  take 
her  place  upon  the  front  seat  of  the  delivery  wagon, 
and,  riding  from  house  to  house,  learn  "how  the 
other  half  lived."  The  Ellen  Swallow  who  as  a  girl 
widened  her  horizon  by  looking  upon  life  from  the 
front  seat  of  a  grocery  wagon  was  the  same  person 
who,  in  after  years,  frequently  left  the  more  conven- 
tional routes  of  travel  to  explore  the  wilds  of  Canada 
in  search  of  minerals,  or  to  visit  remote  mining 
regions  with  her  husband.  She  went  to  Europe,  to 
be  sure,  in  1876,  and  again  in  1884,  but  during 
the  last  twenty-six  years  of  her  life  she  preferred 
to  go  where  daring  feats  of  engineering  were  in 
progress,  where  mountains  were  being  tunneled  or 
rivers  spanned,  or  where  great,  new  cities  were 
conquering  unfavorable  environments. 

But  her  excursions  to  out  of  the  way  places  and 
into  romance  never,  even  in  her  youth,  became  pur- 
poseless wanderings,  for  the  goal  was  always  before 
her;  and  being  determined  to  make  her  life  count 
in  some  helpful  way,  she  would  return  to  the  straight 
path  she  had  marked  out  for  herself  and  trudge 
bravely  forward.  Her  earnestness  and  her  deep 
faith,  which  in  later  years  she  trusted  her  deeds 


24  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

to  reveal,  found  expression  during  her  girlhood  in 
the  religious  forms  and  phraseology  of  the  day. 
"  The  extra  dash  of  puritanism "  which  some  one  has 
said  was  added  to  her  New  England  ancestry  made 
itself  apparent  in  the  letters  of  this  period. 

"As  it  is  Friday,"  she  wrote  in  1861  to  her  cousin 
Annie,  "and  I  have  a  few  moments  which  are  not 
imperatively  claimed,  I  take  the  opportunity  to  write 
the  long-delayed  answer  to  your  welcome  missive. 
I  was  disappointed,  as  well  as  you,  at  not  being  able 
to  make  my  visit,  for  I  had  looked  forward  to  much 
enjoyment  from  it;  but  Providence  decreed  other- 
wise, for  wise  reasons,  doubtless.  ...  I  want  to  come 
and  see  you  so  much.  I  can  see  you  all  with  the 
mind's  eye,  just  as  when  I  used  to  be  with  you,  and 
even  while  I  write  your  faces  present  themselves 
before  me  in  various  ways.  I  fancy  myself  again 
with  you,  out  in  the  barn  in  the  swing  or  jumping 
off  the  hay,  and  lastly  husking  corn,  and  anon  up  in 
your  well-remembered  room  playing  'blindman's 
buff,'  etc.  .  .  .  Ah!  childhood's  joyous  days  are  fled, 
never  more  to  return.  God  grant  that  our  lives  may 
be  useful  ones." 

The  education  which  she  received  at  Westford 
Academy  differed  little  from  that  given  in  the  many 
other  academies  with  which  New  England  was  at  that 
time  dotted.  There  was  a  little  mathematics,  a  few 
compositions,  some  French,  and  much  Latin.  In  the 
Latin  she  must  have  been  thoroughly  grounded,  for 


GIRLHOOD  25 

her  knowledge  of  it,  and  her  ability  to  teach  it, 
formed  a  capital  from  which  she  later  received  an 
income  that  made  it  possible  for  her  to  continue  her 
own  studies.  She  proved  to  be  an  excellent  tutor, 
much  in  demand. 

The  successive  principals  of  the  academy,  whose 
periods  of  service  were  measured  by  terms  rather 
than  years,  and  of  whom  there  were  four  during  her 
three  years'  attendance,  were  all  Harvard  graduates. 
The  first  was  John  D.  Long,  who  afterwards  became 
Governor  of  Massachusetts  and  later  Secretary  of 
the  Navy.  The  second  was  Addison  G.  Smith,  with 
whom  she  became  well  acquainted.  After  he  left 
Westford  they  corresponded  and  exchanged  books 
and  views  upon  politics  and  literature  up  to  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1874.  This  was  the  first  of  those 
comradeships  with  men  which,  added  to  the  one  great 
love  of  her  life  and  to  her  friendships  with  women 
and  her  sympathy  with  children,  made  her  human 
relationships  peculiarly  wide. 

In  March,   1862,   she  left  the  academy  and  was    .tf 
preparing   to   teach   when   the   after    effects    of   an 
attack  of  measles  interfered  with  her  plans.    In  May 
she  wrote  to  her  cousin : 

"I  am  very  glad  the  measles  are  over  with,  for 
I  have  dreaded  them  very  much  since  I  had  the 
whooping  cough,  though  it  has  sadly  interfered  with 
my  plans  for  the  summer,  as  I  had  engaged  to  try  my 
skill  in  teaching  the  'young  ideas  how  to  shoot.'  It 


26  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

was  a  severe  disappointment,  but  I  feel  it  was  all 
for  the  best.  My  friends  all  shook  their  heads  when 
I  told  them  of  my  engagement;  said  I  ought  not  to 
attempt  it  in  my  present  health.  Some  even  said 
they  were  glad  I  was  really  sick.  ...  I  have  not  been 
obliged  to  lie  abed  a  day  before  since  I  was 


The  Store  at  Littleton 


seven  years  old,  yet  suffered  less  pain  in  the  three 
weeks  I  was  sick  than  in  the  same  time  for  the  last 
three  years.  I  am  gaining,  though  rather  slowly, 
and  am  not  very  strong,  as  this  writing  will  show." 

In  the  spring  of  1863  the  family  moved  to 
Littleton,  a  town  situated  about  three  miles  from 
Westford,  where  Mr.  Swallow  had  bought  a  larger 
store  for  the  purpose  of  extending  his  business. 
From  Littleton  the  following  letters  were  written  to 
her  cousin  Annie: 

LITTLETON,  April  30,  1863. 

"Are  you  surprised  to  see  the  new  heading  to  my 
letter,  or  have  you  heard  of  our  removal  hither? 


GIRLHOOD  27 

Yes,  we  are  really  inhabitants  of  Littleton,  or  shall 
be  when  we  have  been  here  long  enough.  So  you 
will  never  see  our  place  in  Westford  in  all  its  glory. 
Yet  we  have  a  pleasant  place  here,  in  some  respects 
pleasanter  than  the  other.  The  store  is  very  large 
and  nice.  The  tenement  is  not  as  convenient  as  one 
could  wish,  yet  it  is  not  very  bad.  It  consists  of  a 
two-story  ell  containing  two  large  rooms  below  and 
chambers  above,  with  two  rooms  back  of  the  store. 
Over  the  store  is  Central  Hall.  We  have  a  large 
garden  but  no  fruit  trees.  There  is  quite  a  little 
village,  more,  I  should  think,  than  at  Westford.  The 
house  fronts  upon  a  little  common.  When  we  get 
righted  I  think  we  shall  feel  quite  contented.  ...  I 
feel  it  my  duty  to  stay  at  home  under  present  cir- 
cumstances instead  of  teaching,  as  I  had  hoped." 

i 

MARCH  22,  1864. 

"Am  going  to  teach  this  summer  if  it  please  God 
to  grant  me  health  and  strength.  School  will  begin 
about  the  first  of  May,  and  I  shall  be  needed  here 
to  help  take  account  of  stock  about  the  middle  of 
April,  so  I  shall  have  no  time  for  visiting.  I  wish 
you  could  come  and  see  me.  I  am  going  to  the 
easterly  part  of  the  town,  about  two  miles  from  here. 
It  is  a  large  school  of  some  forty  scholars.  It  will 
require  a  great  deal  of  care  and  patience,  but  it  is 
my  chosen  work." 

JUNE  9,  1864. 

"I  have  thirty-seven  pupils.  Am  about  two  miles 
from  home;  go  home  every  Friday  night.  I  have  a 


28  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

very  pleasant  boarding  place,  about  as  far  from  the 
schoolhouse  as  your  barn  is  from  the  house.  I  have 
a  few  large  scholars  who  study  the  higher  branches, 
which  makes  it  more  pleasant  for  me." 

SEPTEMBER,  1864. 

"Thought  perhaps  you  would  like  to  know  how 
I  and  my  flock  are  prospering.  Well,  I  guess  about 
as  well  as  could  be  expected.  I  have  forty-one 
pupils  and  have  to  call  out  over  thirty  classes  each 
day.  You  may  judge  there  is  some  work  in  it.  ... 
I  usually  have  to  work  harder  Saturdays  than  any 
other  day  in  the  week.  I  have  put  up  two  wreaths 
of  flowers  since  I  was  at  Nashua,  and  have  two  in 
the  house  now  to  do.  .  .  .  Mother  thinks  it  will  be 
very  lonesome  here  in  the  winter,  so  I  have  almost 
decided  to  remain  at  home,  but  cannot  tell  what  may 
happen." 

After  this  the  work  at  home  and  in  the  store, 
and  the  care  of  her  mother,  who  was  often  ill,  took 
up  so  much  of  her  time  that  she  did  not  again 
attempt  to  teach.  She  wrote  on  February  10,  1865 : 

"I  am  the  same  Nellie  as  of  old,  full  of  business, 
never  seeing  a  leisure  hour,  never  finding  time  to 
study  or  read  half  as  much  as  I  want.  .  .  .  Father 
has  a  little  extra  business  on  hand  now;  is  carrying 
goods  to  two  villages  in  Westford;  so  I  have  to  help 
him  more.  He  has  no  one  regularly  now.  Will  have 
in  the  spring,  probably." 


FROM    PHOTOGRAPHS,   lHtiO-186? 


GIRLHOOD  29 

It  was  during  the  intervals  of  time  between  teach- 
ing, storekeeping,  and  housekeeping  that  she  pre- 
pared herself  for  college.  There  was  an  open  book 
beside  her,  whatever  she  was  doing.  The  winter  of 
1865-66  she  spent  at  Worcester  attending  lectures 
and  studying,  though  just  where  and  whether  or  not 
for  the  distinct  purpose  of  preparing  herself  for 
Vassar,  which  had  opened  a  few  months  before,  it 
has  been  impossible  to  discover.  Here  she  practiced 
the  strictest  economy,  living  principally  on  bread 
and  milk. 

From  Worcester  she  wrote  as  follows: 

DECEMBER  18,  1865. 

"It  seemed  real  good  to  have  one  of  your  nice 
letters.  I  wanted  to  sit  right  down  and  answer  it, 
but  could  not  then,  as  I  had  a  good  deal  to  do  before 
going  home.  I  spent  nearly  a  fortnight  home  at 
Thanksgiving.  Have  come  back  to  spend  the  winter, 
if  all  is  well.  I  enjoy  the  privileges  I  have  here  very 
much,  and  I  have  the  opportunity  of  doing  good, 
too,  for  Deacon  Haywood  has  taken  me  to  his  Mis- 
sion School  and  given  me  a  class  of  bright  little  boys 
to  look  after.  And  I  go  with  him  to  the  jail  some- 
times, when  there  is  need  of  missionary  work." 

APRIL  14,  1866. 

"  This  is  the  anniversary  of  our  belpved  President's 
assassination.  What  gloomy  days  those  were!  I 
shall  never,  never  forget  that  sad  time.  I  think 
I  could  not  suffer  more  than  I  did  for  two  or  three 


30  ELLEN    H.    RICHARDS 

days,  and  if  I  could  have  foreseen  all  that  has  hap- 
pened since,  I  think  I  should  have  almost  lost  faith 
even  in  God  himself;  yet  I  believe  that  all  things 
will  be  ordered  aright  by  the  good  Father  in  Heaven. 

"I  expect  to  remain  in  Worcester  about  two 
months  longer,  then  if  father  is  alone  I  shall  prob- 
ably go  home,  though  I  cannot  tell  what  changes 
may  occur  ere  that  time;  though  there  is  no  'possi- 
bility' of  your  dreams  proving  true  at  present,  for 
the  young  or  old  gentleman  has  not  yet  made  his 
appearance  who  can  entice  me  away  from  my  free 
and  independent  life. 

"I  know  of  no  lady  with  whom  I  would  exchange 
places.  The  gentleman  whom  I  think  the  most  of 
and  who  comes  the  nearest  my  ideal  in  other  things 
does  not  treat  his  wife  as  I  wish  to  be  treated;  yet 
they  are  considered  a  very  loving,  happy  couple, 
and  are  as  much  so  as  the  average.  I  often  tell  him 
we  could  not  live  together  more  than  a  week  if  we 
were  obliged  to,  though  we  agree  very  nicely  now 
on  most  essential  points. 

"Oh!  Annie,  the  silent  misery  I  am  discovering 
every  now  and  then  among  my  friends  whom  I 
thought  as  happy  as  most,  makes  me  shudder.  Some 
things  I  learned  yesterday  about  one  of  my  dearest 
friends,  made  me  almost  vow  I  never  would  bind 
myself  with  the  chains  of  matrimony.  I  don't  believe 
girls  usually  get  behind  the  scenes  as  much  as  I  have, 
or  they  could  not  get  up  such  an  enthusiasm  for 
married  life. 

"Annie,  is  it  possible  that  we  have  attained  the 


GIRLHOOD  31 

eventful  age  of  twenty-three?  Do  you  feel  old?  I 
am  sure  I  don't,  yet  I  have  seen  something  of  life 
in  these  years  and  it  seems  long  to  look  back  upon, 
and  how  little  I  have  done  for  my  Saviour  in  com- 
parison with  what  I  ought  to  have  done.  And  now 
I  fear  I  let  many  opportunities  go  by  that  I  ought 
to  improve.  Pray  for  me,  dear  Annie,  that  my  life 
may  not  be  entirely  in  vain,  that  I  may  be  of  some 
use  in  this  sinful  world.  I  feel  sometimes  as  though 
I  would  be  glad  to  leave  it,  the  ties  that  bind  me  to 
earth  at  times  seem  very  slight." 

There  were  love  affairs  at  this  time;  the  usual 
hopes  and  anticipations  of  young  womanhood.  After 
she  had  begun  her  work  as  a  chemist,  but  before 
she  became  engaged  to  Professor  Richards,  she  wrote 
to  a  college  friend: 

"I  can  now  change  the  query,  'Will  it  pay  to 
sacrifice  love  for  fame?'  into  the  declaration,  'It 
has  paid  so  far;'"  adding,  "If  I  had  not  had  an 
almost  Napoleonic  faith  in  my  star  I  should  have 
yielded."  The  star,  if  we  may  judge  from  after 
events,  had  no  intention  of  guiding  her  away  from 
matrimony,  only  of  saving  her  from  a  marriage 
which,  as  a  possibility,  she  could  deliberately  hold 
up  before  herself  and  compare  with  a  career.  Stars 
are  not  always  leading  us  in  the  direction  we  think 
they  are  at  the  moment. 

Having  abandoned  the  thought  of  marriage,  she 
bent  her  whole  effort  toward  getting  further  educa- 


32  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

tion.  At  that  day,  however,  there  were  few  doors 
open  to  ambitious  women.  Until  Wellesley  and 
Smith  were  founded,  about  ten  years  later,  New  Eng- 
land had  no  college  to  which  women  were  admitted, 
*"  while  Vassar,  the  woman's  college  just  across  the 
New  York  border,  was  so  recently  founded  that 
its  fame  was  just  beginning  to  spread  abroad.  As 
there  were  no  colleges  in  her  neighborhood,  there 
were,  of  course,  no  college  preparatory  courses.  She 
herself  had  an  honorable  part  in  the  work  that  led 
to  the  founding  of  the  Girls'  Latin  School  of  Boston, 
in  1878. 

Thus  hampered  and  delayed  in  getting  the  edu- 
cation she  desired,  and  with  a  feeling  of  power 
within  her  for  which  there  was  no  outlet,  she  entered 
in  1866  upon  the  only  unhappy  period  of  her  life. 
This  unhappiness  is  not  to  be  explained  on  the 
ground  that  she  scorned  the  duties  which  lay  near 
at  hand,  for  she  assumed  her  full  share  of  work  at 
home,  in  the  store,  in  the  church,  and  in  the  Sunday 
school.  "Nellie  was  a  very  busy  little  woman," 
writes  a  friend,  "and  whether  measuring  off  calico, 
weighing  sugar,  or  acting  as  postmistress,  she  always 
had  a  kind  and  cheerful  and  helpful  word.  She  was 
always  studying  up  ways  and  means  to  better  and 
improve  things.  She  was  not  only  influential  in  start- 
ing a  reading  and  magazine  club,  but  attended  to  all 
the  details  and  pushed  it  through  till  the  little  post 
office  looked  a  good  deal  like  a  periodical  store." 


GIRLHOOD  33 

Whatever  her  hands  found  to  do,  she  did.  She  cared 
for  sick  friends  and  neighbors ;  and  in  order  to  earn 
money,  she  sewed,  and  preserved  flowers,  organizing 
classes  in  this  art  in  the  neighboring  towns. 

Nor  is  there  any  evidence  that  her  unhappiness 
was  allowed  to  find  outward  expression.  A  man  who, 
as  a  little  boy,  had  known  her  during  this  period, 
wrote  after  her  death:  "She  had  an  active  part  with 
the  other  young  people  of  the  town  in  the  social  life 
of  the  place,  the  fun  and  frolic  that  was  going  on, 
and  she  was  a  great  favorite  at  our  home.  I  vividly 
remember  her  presence  with  us  as  a  nurse,  a  volun- 
teer nurse,  when  we  had  serious  sickness  in  the  house. 
There  were,  of  course,  no  trained  nurses  in  those 
days,  and  in  a  country  place  like  that  no  professional 
nurses  at  all.  The  neighbors  used  to  help  each  other 
out,  when  there  was  severe  sickness,  by  taking  turns 
as  'watchers'  with  the  sick.  And  the  thing  that 
impressed  a  very  small  boy  about  'Nellie  Swallow's' 
nursing — a  thing  that  I  have  thought  about  hun- 
dreds of  times  since — was  her  wonderful  cheerful- 
ness and  hopefulness  when  everybody  else  about  the 
house  was  anxious  and  depressed.  I  can  remember 
the  sweet,  encouraging  tone  of  her  voice  and  her 
winsome  smile  in  those  dark  days." 

But  the  tasks  which  were  given  her  at  this  time 
were  not  commensurate  with  her  power,  and  the  un- 
used energy  within  her  seems  fairly  to  have  turned 
upon  her  and  to  have  reduced  her  almost  to  a  con- 


34  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

dition  of  invalidism.  It  is  difficult  for  those  who 
knew  the  Mrs.  Richards  of  later  years,  who,  rising 
at  half-past  five,  went  briskly  through  a  long  day's 
work,  scorning  to  rest  or  take  naps,  to  believe  that 
she  was  the  same  person  who  in  1868  made  the 
following  entries  in  her  pocket  diary: 

January  6 — Did  not  go  to  meeting,  tired.  Janu- 
ary 11 — Tired,  indifferent.  January  £0 — Tired. 
January  27 — Tired.  February  1 — Busy,  tired. 
February  2 — Almost  sick.  February  9 — Miserable, 
lay  on  sofa  all  day.  February  13 — Felt  wretchedly 
all  day.  February  14 — Lay  down,  sick.  Febru- 
ary 19 — Oh !  so  tired.  February  23 — So  tired. 
March  W — Tired.  March  24 — Tired.  April  11— 
Terribly  tired. 

This  was  the  story  as  she  told  it  at  the  time.  A 
few  years  later  she  wrote  to  a  friend  who  found 
herself  hedged  in : 

"I  lived  for  over  two  years  in  Purgatory  really, 
and  I  didn't  know  what  to  do,  and  it  seemed  best 
for  me  to  just  stay  and  endure  and  it  seemed  as 
though  I  should  just  go  wild.  I  used  to  fret  and 
fume — inside — so  every  day,  and  think  I  couldn't 
live  so  much  longer.  I  was  thwarted  and  hedged  in 
on  every  side;  it  seemed  as  though  God  didn't  help 
me  a  bit  and  man  was  doing  his  best  against  me 
and  my  own  heart  even  turned  traitor,  and,  well— 
altogether  I  had  a  sorry  time  of  it." 

But  better  times  were  coming  for  her.    "One  day 


GIRLHOOD  35 

she  came  up  to  my  uncle's  house,"  writes  a  friend, 
"and  said:  'You  know,  Mr.  Tuttle,  that  I  have  been 
to  school  a  good  deal,  read  quite  a  little,  and  so 
secured  quite  a  little  knowledge.  Now  I  am  going 
to  Vassar  College  to  get  it  straightened  out  and 
assimilated.  What  do  you  think  of  my  plan?'' 

The  same  little  diary  which  contains  the  record  of 
the  suffering  which  she  endured  with  outward  calm 
contains  the  following  entries: 

September  15,  1868 — Farewell  to  Littleton;  met 
Father  at  Waldo  House  and  took  the  Albany  express 
at  10. 

September  16 — From  5.25  to  10  in  Albany. 
Arrived  at  Vassar,  pleasantly  welcomed,  very  tired. 

September  17 — First  day  at  college;  am  de- 
lighted even  beyond  anticipations,  the  rest  seems 
so  refreshing. 


•"---  \^z>'    "The  Lodge,"  Vassar  College     j^^f- 


CHAPTER    III 

AT    COLLEGE 

FORTUNATELY,  at  this  point,  Ellen  Swallow  takes 
up  the  story  of  her  own  life.  During  her  years  at 
college  she  wrote  long  letters,  at  least  once  a  week, 
to  her  mother,  which  form  an  uninterrupted  record, 
and  which  have  come  to  be  known  as  her  Vassar 
Diary.  Twenty-five  years  after  she  graduated,  she 
heard  some  one  say  that  it  was  unfortunate  that 
the  comments  of  students  upon  college  conditions, 
which  might  be  of  value  in  determining  college  poli- 

36 


AT  COLLEGE  37 

cies,  were  usually  embodied  in  private  family  letters, 
and  thus  lost  to  the  world.  With  her  customary 
directness  of  action  she  sought  out  her  own  old 
letters  and  marked  certain  portions  to  be  type- 
written, omitting  the  references  to  purely  personal 
and  family  matters,  and  also  the  long  abstracts  of 
books  and  sermons  which  she  had  made  for  her 
father  and  mother.  Later  she  culled  from  the  type- 
written extracts  all  the  passages  which  had  special 
bearing  upon  the  beginnings  of  Vassar,  and  published 
them  in  the  Vassar  Miscellany  of  January  and 
February,  1896. 

When  she  entered  Vassar,  in  September,  1868, 
she  was  classified  as  a  special  student.  Somewhat 
over  a  year  later  she  was  admitted  to  the  senior 
class,  and  was  graduated  in  1870. 

A  college  mate  writes:  "Her  two  years  at  Vassar 
belonged  to  the  period  when  faculty  and  students 
alike  (consciously  or  unconsciously)  were  forming 
the  standards  of  the  new  college.  Her  part  in  the 
work  was  that  of  a  strong  personality,  understand- 
ing well  her  own  needs,  and  by  the  same  light  in- 
terpreting the  needs  of  her  fellow-students.  Some 
years  older  than  the  average  student,  she  was  mature 
in  character,  with  mental  powers  well-disciplined 
and  controlled.  To  do  work  well  for  its  own  sake, 
not  for  its  reflex  on  herself,  she  had  already  learned." 

"While  her  primary  purpose  was  study,  she  was 
alive  to  all  the  best  influences  of  college  life,  and 


38  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

in  it  she  was  an  active  though  often  a  silent  force. 
To  make  the  most  of  her  own  powers  for  the  sake 
of  using  them  in  advancing  knowledge  and  in  broad 
and  enlightened  activity  seemed  to  be  her  aim,  while 
no  opportunity  for  fellow  service  was  to  be  let  slip 
by  the  way.  Independent  in  thought  and  action, 
quick  to  see  far-reaching  consequences,  never  self- 
assertive,  she  is  to  be  counted  among  that  strong 
company  of  the  earlier  students  who  while  receiving 
much  gave  much  to  Vassar  College." 

The  strongest  personal  influences  which  came  to 
her  in  college  were  from  Maria  Mitchell,  the  astron- 
omer, and  from  Professor  C.  A.  Farrar,  who  was 
at  the  head  of  the  Department  of  Natural  Sciences 
and  Mathematics.  Miss  Mitchell  wanted  to  make 
an  astronomer  of  her,  and  she  would  doubtless  have 
succeeded  if  her  science  had  not  been  so  far  removed 
from  the  earth  and  its  needs.  In  the  woefully  brief 
autobiographical  notes  which  Mrs.  Richards  left 
she  said  it  was  probably  an  unrecognized  leaning 
towards  social  service  which  led  her,  an  enthusiastic 
student  of  Maria  MitchelPs,  to  abandon  astronomy 
and  study  chemistry.  Professor  Farrar's  very 
strong  influence  over  her  came  partly  from  her 
respect  for  his  ability  as  a  scientist  and  a  teacher, 
and  partly  from  the  fact  that  he  took  the  very 
advanced  position  for  that  time  that  science  should 
help  in  the  solution  of  practical  problems. 

Her   natural   bent   was   evidently   towards    scien- 


AT  COLLEGE  39 

tific  studies,  for  either  in  classroom  or  by  examina- 
tion she  took  all  the  courses  in  science  then  offered 
with  the  exception  of  one  in  mathematical  astron- 
omy, and  wherever  there  was  an  opportunity  she 
did  additional  volunteer  work.  One  classmate  writes 
that  she  was  a  member  of  a  little  group  of  three 
who  in  an  elective  course  in  chemistry  analyzed 
everything  that  came  in  their  way  "from  shoe- 
blacking  to  baking  powder." 

The  selections  from  her  letters  which  are  given 
here  were  made  with  a  view  to  showing  not  only  the 
external  conditions  of  her  life  at  this  period,  but 
also  the  pure  joy  with  which  she  responded  to  the 
intellectual  stimulus  of  her  college  life,  which  from 
the  standpoint  of  biographical  interest  is  quite  as 
important.  In  many  cases  the  references  to  her 
own  progress  and  attainments  seem  egotistical,  but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  during  those  early  days 
of  pioneering  she  was  almost  like  two  persons,  one 
of  whom  was  making  an  interesting  experiment  and 
taking  a  step  which  was  against  all  precedent  and 
against  the  advice  of  all  of  her  associates,  while  the 
other  was  a  sympathetic  onlooker,  joyously  record- 
ing successes.  It  should  be  remembered,  also,  that 
the  letters  were  intended  only  for  the  eyes  of  a 
loving  father  and  mother,  who  knew  what  sacrifices 
she  had  made,  and  who  were,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
to  be  told  of  any  triumphs  which  she  achieved. 


40  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

VASSAR    DIARY 

1868-1869 

September  10.  The  President  admitted  me  to 
pursue  the  regular,  or  a  special  course.  I  was 
cordially  welcomed  by  all  whom  I  had  met  before 
(during  the  preliminary  examinations  in  previous 
June)1  and  everything  promised  fair. 

I  had  for  dinner,  soup,  which  was  a  fashionable 
one,  water  poured  over  meat,  with  macaroni  a  little 
larger  than  knitting  needles,  then  roast  beef,  suc- 
cotash, squash  and  potatoes,  with  rhubarb  pie  and 
canteloupes  for  dessert.  All  was  nice  as  possible. 

Our  carpet  is  a  little  figure,  red  and  green,  bright 
and  good.  The  walls  are  pure  white,  at  least 
13  feet  high,  the  doors  and  casings,  dark,  the 
shutters,  chairs  and  chamber  set  are  chestnut,  a 
black  walnut  whatnot,  an  oval  study  table,  with 
a  little  waste  paper  basket  underneath. 

September  17.  This  morning  I  went  over  to  the 
Observatory  and  looked  through  the  telescope,  an 
entrancing  instrument.  Had  a  very  delightful  call 
on  Miss  Mitchell  and  her  father,  who  is  a  charming 
old  gentleman.  At  eleven  o'clock,  we  who  had  not 
been  classified,  went  into  the  chapel  to  listen  to 
Professor  Hart  for  an  hour.  He  accompanied 
Professor  Agassiz  to  Brazil,  and  he  told  us  stories 
of  his  adventures. 

1  The  explanations  in  parentheses  which  are  found  all  through 
the  diary  were  made  by  Mrs.  Richards  in  1895. 


AT  COLLEGE  41 

I  do  not  feel  the  least  anxiety  now  in  regard  to  my 
studies.  I  do  not  expect  to  work  much  for  a  month. 

The  Art  Gallery  has  about  600  pieces,  some 
of  them  little  gems  and  some  are  curiosities.  The 
Library  contains  much  of  interest  for  me;  his- 
tory and  travels  and  choice  works  which  I  have 
long  wished  to  read.  The  table  is  well  furnished 
with  magazines.  It  will  be  a  favorite  resort  to  me. 

September  19.  I  am  so  fortunate  in  my  little 
family.  All  are  studious  and  agreeable. 

Some  twenty  or  more  of  the  girls  wear  their 
hair  flowing  to  their  waists  without  any  attempt 
at  doing  it  up.  It  is  not  usually  curly,  but  long 
and  straight.  It  seems  as  if  they  had  not  yet 
dressed.  ...  I  hope  you  are  feeling  better  by  this 
time.  I  don't  worry,  because  I  can  do  no  good  by 
it.  I  left  everything  behind  me  at  Worcester  [about 
the  time  she  went  to  Vassar  her  parents  moved  to 
Worcester]  and  live  an  entirely  new  life.  Of  course 
if  you  are  sick  or  need  me,  you  must  send  for  me, 
and  I  will  immediately  come  to  you.  Then  will  be 
soon  enough  to  worry. 

September  %Jf.  I  have  got  so  far  settled  that  I 
will  give  you  a  sketch  of  my  daily  occupations. 
The  bell  strikes  at  six.  At  quarter  of  seven  we  have 
breakfast.  Each  one  can  leave  the  dining  room  as 
soon  as  she  has  finished,  and  thus  I  get  time  to  make 
my  bed,  which  is  all  we  have  to  do  in  our  rooms. 


42  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

In  chapel  we  sing,  and  Miss  Lyman  offers  prayer. 
We  have  ten  minutes  then  for  arranging  our  rooms, 
or,  if  it  is  done,  for  study,  then  we  have  twenty  min- 
utes alone  for  devotion  and  meditation  in  perfect 
quiet.  Study  hours  do  not  begin  until  nine.  At 
quarter  of  ten  I  go  down  to  philosophy  [physics]. 
I  like  Professor  Farrar  very  much.  There  is  an 
intellectual  power  about  him.  All  recitations  are 
forty  minutes.  At  twelve  we  have  Trigonometry, 
at  one  comes  dinner,  which  occupies  three-quarters 
of  an  hour,  then  I  go  out  of  doors  for  an  hour, 
write  an  hour,  and  if  my  lessons  are  nearly  ready 
for  the  next  day,  go  into  the  Library  directly  after 
French,  and  perhaps  read  or  study  a  little  before 
dressing  for  tea,  which  is  at  six.  Then  chapel  and 
another  twenty  minutes  as  silent  time,  from  7.30 
to  9.45  for  writing,  reading,  or  study.  I  find  I 
have  much  time  to  myself,  and  it  seems  so  pleasant 
to  be  able  to  read  and  write  with  much  comfort  and 
without  danger  of  interruption,  which  used  to  dis- 
turb me  so  much.  I  have  not  been  homesick  for  a 
moment.  I  have  nothing  to  complain  of.  The 
Faculty  have  not  reached  S( wallow)  yet,  so  I  do  not 
know  what  studies  I  shall  take  in  addition. 

It  would  seem  that  there  was  an  immense  amount 
of  travel  in  this  great  building,  but  on  counting  up, 
I  find  that  my  regular  work  requires  my  going  up 
and  down  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  steps  daily, 
and  I  have  to  walk  nearly  a  mile  on  the  corridors. 


AT  COLLEGE  43 

Miss  Lyman  said  yesterday,  "You  know  people 
will  persist  in  calling  this  a  school,  when  it  is  not 
a  school  at  all,  but  a  college  really."  She  also  said, 
"The  Faculty  do  not  consider  it  a  mere  experiment 
any  longer  that  girls  can  be  educated  as  well  as 
boys." 

I  am  very  glad  that  I  did  not  come  earlier  for 
they  have  made  great  improvements,  and  I  think 
now  is  just  the  time  to  commence  with  the  new 
rules. 

October  4-  We  of  this  parlor  get  on  harmoni- 
ously. I  am  quite  well  and  perfectly  contented. 
We  have  festooned  clematis  all  about  the  room, 
and  have  a  new  tablecloth,  black  and  green.  We 
had  all  the  long  morning  to  ourselves  until  half 
past  three,  which  is  the  regular  hour  for  service. 
We  listened  to  a  very  dull  sermon  from  a  Pough- 
keepsie  clergyman.  I  do  not  wonder  some  of  the 
girls  dread  Sunday,  which  hardly  seems  a  Sabbath 
to  me,  save  in  the  rest  from  study.  I  shall  go  down 
to  the  city  whenever  it  is  pleasant.  We  have  just 
been  to  our  us,ual  corridor  prayer  meeting,  a  half 
hour  together  every  Sabbath  evening. 

The  only  trouble  here  is  they  won't  let  us  study 
enough.  They  are  so  afraid  we  shall  break  down 
and  you  know  the  reputation  of  the  College  is  at 
stake,  for  the  question  is,  can  girls  get  a  college 
degree  without  injuring  their  health? 

I  am  not  working  hard  at  all  in  my  classes.     My 


44  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

regular  studies  do  not  take  quite  all  my  time,  so 
that  I  have  time  to  read  and  study  other  things. 
It  is  wonderful  how  all  my  wishes  are  granted 
without  my  asking  or  working  for  it. 

October  15.  We  have  a  sheet  of  paper  with  our 
six  names  written  at  intervals  of  a  few  lines,  headed 
"Slang,"  pasted  on  our  parlor  door  and  every  time 
one  of  us  uses  a  slang  phrase  or  a  bad  word,  as 
"goodness"  we  have  to  write  it  down  and  pay  a 
penny  besides.  When  we  get  pennies  enough,  we 
will  have  a  treat.  The  girls  are  .afraid  they  will 
not  get  many  pennies  from  me.  I  have  not  been 
caught  yet. 

October  18.  Miss  Lyman  had  some  beautiful 
thoughts  beautifully  expressed  this  morning,  on 
Economy,  taking  God's  greatest  example  and  try- 
ing to  impress  it  upon  us  that  we  were  each  one 
his  stewards.  Dr.  -  -  gave  us  a  sermon  of  over  an 
hour's  length  this  afternoon,  on  "Sin  exceeding 
sinful."  It  was  good  enough,  but  he  might  have 
said  it  all  in  half  an  hour  and  it  would  have  done 
the  girls  more  good.  .  .  .  We  have  so  many  religious 
exercises  on  Sunday,  prayers  and  silent  time.  Our 
corridor  prayer  meetings  make  more  than  most 
people  get  and  some  girls  are  holding  a  daily  prayer 
meeting.  I  think  it  is  too  much. 

October  19.  I  have  taken  my  first  lesson  in  riding 
horseback.  I  rode  a  little  black  pony,  Josephine. 
[The  only  extras  on  her  college  bill  for  the  first 
year  were  for  riding  lessons.] 


AT  COLLEGE  45 

October  25.  Our  Bible  classes  were  organized 
this  morning  and  I  was  assigned  just  where  I  had 
hoped,  to  Prof.  Farrar.  He  is  such  a  large-souled, 
noble  man  and  deep  thinker.  We  are  to  study 
church  history  which  will  just  suit  me. 

November  6.  I  have  been  very  busy  all  the  week. 
Have  been  perfect  in  all  my  lessons.  We  are  just 
through  our  examinations  in  philosophy.  I  have 
not  failed  in  any  of  them.  I  am  very  well.  We 
had  chicken  pie  for  dinner  and  pumpkin  pie  and 
cheese  yesterday  for  dessert,  but  I  do  want  some 
mince  pies  and  pork ! 

November  IS.  I  was  so  vexed  yesterday  morning 
that  I  did  not  think  of  meteors  and  that  Miss 
Mitchell  did  not  tell  us.  The  girls  who  watched 
on  the  Observatory  counted  3500. 

I  must  tell  you  that  we  had  rules  for  table  eti- 
quette read  in  our  corridor  meeting  to-day.  Never 
put  a  knife  in  the  mouth.  Never  eat  anything  with 
a  knife  that  you  can  eat  with  a  fork.  Eat  soup 
noiselessly  from  the  side  of  the  spoon. 

November  25.  I  cannot  risk  my  health  without 
having  a  rest  (at  Christmas).  The  twenty-six 
weeks  that  follow  in  one  unbroken  line  will  be  hard 
enough  with  all  the  strength  that  I  can  lay  up. 
I  came  here  wholly  unfit  for  study  and  my  first 
care  was  to  look  after  my  body,  as  my  health  is 
the  first  importance.  Having  got  that  in  pretty 
good  condition,  I  gave  my  brain  the  lead  .  .  . 


46  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

working  every  moment  of  the  time,  even  carrying 
the  train  of  thought  to  the  dinner  table,  which  is 
not  allowable,  always  aspiring  to  the  first  place. 
I  have  a  double  incentive  now,  for  I  have  fully 
decided  to  remain  here  one  and  very  likely  two 
years  longer,  and  upon  my  standing  now  will  in  a 
measure  depend  the  employment  I  shall  have.  I 
think  there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  arranging  matters 
satisfactorily  and  I  must  keep  the  body  in  good 
condition  to  do  the  bidding  of  the  spirit.  We  live 
so  isolated  and  so  unanxious  a  life  here  that  a 
change  is  indispensable,  to  me  at  least,  and  if  I 
choose  to  dress  more  simply  and  use  the  dollars  in 
other  ways,  I  feel  justified  in  so  doing. 

My  ivy  is  the  pride  of  the  third  corridor  north. 
It  is  about  three  feet  high  and  very  .thrifty. 

November  26.  Miss  Lyman  sent  for  me  the 
other  morning  to  say  that  I  was  accepted  for  a 
scholarship  and  that  she  had  no  doubt  I  would 
make  good  use  of  it. 

December  3.  This  has  been  quite  a  pleasant  day 
for  me.  I  have  been  promoted  in  German,  so  shall 
have  to  study  a  little  harder,  but  it  will  be  very 
nice. 

Don't  do  anything  for  my  coming  home,  only 
have  some  mince  pies.  I  shall  be  hungry  as  a  bear. 
I  have  gained  thirteen  pounds  since  I  came. 

January  20,  1869.  I  had  a  German  letter  to  write 
for  Miss  Kapp  yesterday  instead  of  a  lesson.  I  put 


AT  COLLEGE  47 

it  in  rhyme,  twenty-four  lines  in  German,  ten  syl- 
lables in  a  line.  I  have  to  read  an  essay  before  our 
Literary  Chapter  to-morrow  night.  It  is  not  written, 
only  stray  sentences,  and  one  for  the  Natural  His- 
tory Society  on  Saturday,  not  even  touched.  We 
are  to  commence  a  drill  review  in  Chemistry  to-day 
which  takes  much  time  and  I  have  to  give  all  my 
strength  and  courage  to  comfort  Miss  -  — ,  who 
gets  so  tired  and  discouraged. 

January  23.  I  am  enjoying  our  philosophy  now 
very  much.  We  have  been  making  the  universe  to- 
day by  a  large  globe  of  oil  in  alcohol  and  water, 
throwing  off  planets,  etc. 

February  5.  As  the  half  year  closes  on  Tuesday 
next  and  many  studies  are  finished,  there  has  been 
a  deal  of  reviewing  and  examinations  which  makes 
hard  work.  My  being  promoted  in  German  made 
my  work  double  and  I  wanted  to  keep  up  my 
reputation  in  mathematics.  I  think  of  what  you 
say  in  regard  to  doing  extra  in  order  to  keep  the 
standard  people  set  for  you,  because  you  have 
excelled  in  some  things,  but  while  I  am  so  well  and 
can  study  nine  hours  a  day  without  a  headache, 
I  am  all  right. 

February  16.  I  fear  you  will  get  more  than  you 
are  thankful  for  this  time.  If  my  notes  are  not 
quite  plain  enough  to  be  interesting,  say  so.  If 
you  are  really  pleased,  I  like  to  do  it  for  you,  for 
it  takes  much  reading  to  cull  the  grains  of  wheat 


48  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

from  the  chaff  and  writing  them  down  aids  in  fixing 
them  in  memory.  (This  refers  to  the  abundant 
extracts  and  abstracts  which  fill  the  letters.)  .  .  . 
A  letter  of  eighteen  pages  is  something  I  never 
wrote  before. 

February  19.  Last  night  Miss  Mitchell  gave 
her  maiden  lecture  before  Chapter  Delta.  I  was 
invited  and  I  enjoyed  it  so  much.  She  was  rather 
timid  and  would  not  allow  any  of  the  Faculty 
admitted,  but  it  was  charming  to  hear  her  talk  of 
the  people  she  had  met  when  in  Europe  and  she 
need  not  have  feared.  Her  manner  was  very  simple 
and  correct  without  any  pretension.  She  stipulated 
that  she  should  sit  at  a  table  and  she  gave  us  some- 
times her  notes  taken  at  different  times,  and  some- 
times she  spoke  her  thoughts.  We  all  came  away 
more  proud  of  her  than  before,  if  that  was  possi- 
ble. She  spoke  of  Caroline  Herschel  who  aided  her 
brother  so  much  in  his  discoveries  and  Mrs.  Somer- 
ville,  whom  she  had  the  pleasure  of  visiting  when 
about  eighty  years  old,  and  who  "came  tripping 
into  the  room"  to  meet  her.  Also  she  told  us  of 
Harriet  Hosmer.  She  urged  us  to  do  our  work 
well  and  faithfully.  She  said  that  living  a  little 
apart  as  she  did,  she  could  see  our  advantages  better 
than  we  could. 

February  28.  Last  night's  lecture  did  not  come 
up  to  my  expectations.  Prof.  -  -  is  a  learned  man 
doubtless,  but  I  did  not  think  he  understood  what 


AT  COLLEGE  49 

to  say  to  us.  I  expected  something  new  and  worth 
knowing,  not  to  be  told  that  the  rocks  lay  in  beds 
and  that  the  continent  was  not  in  its  present  shape 
in  -the  beginning,  and  that  when  pebbles  rubbed 
against  each  other  they  wore  off  into  sand. 

March  18.  This  morning  Miss  Lyman  gave  us 
a  regular  "dressing  down."  She  said  that  we  should 
look  as  though  we  were  interested,  if  we  were  not, 
when  we  went  to  lectures,  and  that  we  should  give 
close  attention  to  whomever  was  speaking.  She  re- 
marked that  Prof.  -  -  was  a  distinguished  man 
and  if  he  should  go  to  Europe,  all  the  learned  men 
would  flock  to  hear  him;  that  he  had  made  many 
discoveries  and  was  speaking  on  his  own  ground 
and  was  capable  of  teaching  wiser  people  than  any 
of  us  are.  Very  true,  but  he  would  not  speak  to 
such  a  company  of  learned  men  as  he  spoke  to  us. 
(This  refers  to  the  talking  down  to  our  supposed 
level  which  most  of  the  early  lecturers  were  guilty 
of.)  Miss  Lyman  was  quite  shocked  that  two  or 
three  ladies  actually  carried  work  into  the  chapel. 
I  should  like  to  harve  heard  Miss  Lyman  talk  to 
three  hundred  young  men  in  that  strain. 

April  4-  It  is  really  Spring.  The  ladies'  delights 
are  in  bloom  and  the  tulips  are  up  three  inches  high. 
The  birds  are  singing  in  the  morning. 

April  9.  I  would  like  to  come  in  and  give  you 
my  first  flowers  for  I  have  had  the  great  privilege 
of  finding  the  white  hepaticas,  the  first  spring 


50 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 


flowers  found  this  year.  Miss  Folsom  and  I  found 
them  in  our  walk  about  two  miles  away  from  the 
college.  We  sent  a  delicate  bouquet  to  poor  old 
Mr.  Mitchell  (Maria  Mitchell's  father)  who  will 
never  see  the  spring  flowers  again.  We  carried  a 
cluster  to  Dr.  Avery  who  was  much  pleased  and  to 


The  Willows 


Miss  Lyman  who  is  sick.  .  .  .  The  frogs  are  peep- 
ing, the  yellow  crocuses  are  in  bloom  and  the 
hillsides  are  becoming  quite  green. 

Easter  Sunday.  I  send  you  a  specimen  of  the 
walking  fern  which  we  found  on  Cedar  Ridge.  [A 
college  mate  writes :  "  There  was  a  little  Natural 
History  Club  of  which  she  was  an  active  member, 
and  long  walks  in  the  neighborhood  brought  home 
specimens  for  its  meetings.  Often  she  was  one  of 
a  group  of  five  or  six  who,  regardless  of  swamps 


AT  COLLEGE  51 

or  stone  walls  or  ditches,  made  their  way  straight 
to  some  distant  hilltop,  marked  from  the  college 
windows  as  a  good  place  for  a  mountain  view. 
Oftener  still  her  vigorous,  elastic  step  set  the  pace 
for  one  or  two  in  a  walk  through  fields  and  woods 
and  her  eyes  and  ears  made  note  of  what  was  best 
worth  observing."] 

Dr.  Avery  has  given  me  permission  to  rise  in  the 
morning  when  I  wish  if  I  will  not  disturb  the  others, 
so  I  shall  gain  some  hours  these  long  mornings.  [The 
college  mate  who  was  quoted  above  says:  "There 
were  no  wasted  minutes  in  her  calendar.  Out-of- 
doors  there  was  whole-hearted  recreation:  in-doors, 
time  well-adjusted  to  accomplish  her  ends.  The 
tireless  industry  that  later  she  made  so  significant 
showed  itself  in  many  ways.  There  was  an  hour 
for  going  to  the  library  to  look  through  the  Reviews 
and  Magazines  and  Weeklies,  culling  out  whatever 
had  a  bearing  on  her  own  studies  or  recorded  prog- 
ress in  other  fields.  There  was  knitting  to  pick  up 
between  observations  at  the  telescope  or  to  keep 
time  to  the  learning  of  German  verbs.  The  knit- 
ting needles  were  active  sometimes  even  on  the 
long  flights  of  stairs  that  led  to  her  fifth  floor 
room  of  the  senior  year."] 

One  morning  this  week  Miss  Lyman  sent  for  me. 
I  immediately  began  counting  up  my  sins,  as  we 
all  do  when  that  message  comes  to  us.  I  concluded 
I  had  not  done  anything  but  what  I  could  brave 


52  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

her  wrath  for,  so  I  marched  into  the  dreaded  little 
office  with  good  courage.  She  was  exceedingly 
pleasant  and  wished  to  know  if  I  could  find  time 
to  teach  two  young  ladies  arithmetic.  I  could,  of 
course,  and  she  said  I  might  try  and  that  Prof. 
Farrar  would  give  me  the  necessary  directions. 
Each  will  pay  about  $5.00  a  month.  [From  this 
time  on,  until  her  education  was  finished,  she  sup- 
ported herself,  chiefly  by  tutoring.  She  had  come  to 
college  with  $300,  partly  saved  and  partly  borrowed, 
and  she  had  expected  to  remain  one  year  only.  Her 
entire  expenses  during  her  first  year  at  Vassar  were 
$515,  of  which  $400  was  for  tuition  and  board. 
She  spent  in  the  summer  of  1869  $66.50,  which 
brought  her  expenses  from  September,  1868,  to 
September,  1869,  up  to  $581.50.] 

April  20.  A  party  of  Juniors  and  others 
planned  an  excursion  to  the  Cannon  Factory  at 
West  Point,  to  go  down  on  the  boat  and  back 
at  night.  Prof.  Farrar  and  Miss  Braislin  were  to  go 
as  leaders.  Miss  Lyman  "could  not  think  of  it" 
and  wondered  they  had  not  asked  her  before  the 
plan  was  made.  They  told  her  they  had  no  doubt 
she  would  let  them  go.  Then  they  asked  her  to  see 
the  President  about  it.  She  said  she  would  do  so, 
but  he  would  first  ask  her  what  she  thought  and  she 
would  tell  him  she  could  not  consent.  He  might  do 
what  he  pleased.  "It  might  get  into  the  papers" 
and  that  would  never  do.  It  must  not  happen  on 


AT  COLLEGE  53 

account  of  the  precedent  it  would  set.  "It  was 
not  because  it  was  West  Point"  oh  no!  "It  was 
the  principle  of  the  thing."  It  seemed  a  real  insult 
to  Prof.  Farrar.  He  was  justly  very  indignant. 
It  is  a  pretty  idea.  If  we  are  to  be  educated  so  that 
we  can  speak  in  public  or  to  be  self-sufficient  any- 
where, we  ought  to  be  capable  of  taking  a  little  trip 
without  fearing  a  notice  in  the  papers.  Just  at 
present  the  whole  faculty  is  in  disgrace  with  us. 

[Forty-one  years  afterwards,  Mrs.  Richards, 
speaking  at  an  alumnae  luncheon,  referred  to  this 
affair:  "Shall  we  ever  forget  the  West  Point  expe- 
dition which  did  not  take  place?  Now  we  know 
that  rapid  growth  is  cancerous  or  fungoid  and  that 
it  was  not  so  much  fear  of  us  individually  as  of 
what  our  development  meant  in  the  future  that  led 
to  the  tantalizing  caution  so  galling  to  us."] 

Tell  father  he  must  not  think  it  hard  to  work. 
Work  is  a  sovereign  remedy  for  all  ills  and  a  man 
who  loves  to  work  will  never  be  unhappy. 

April  26.  Miss  Folsom  and  I  went  to  the  city 
yesterday  for  a  little  shopping.  My  hat  is  a  soup 
dish  of  white  straw,  with  five  leaves  of  the  straw 
edged  with  black  velvet  on  the  top.  It  cost  $2.25. 
In  town  we  went  up  College  Hill.  The  view  of  the 
city  was  very  fine  from  the  roof  of  the  building 
which  is  used  for  a  summer  hotel.  Miss  Folsom 
and  I  are  the  acknowledged  champions  of  the 
pedestrian  excursions.  I  was  not  going  down  the 


54  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

river  to  West  Point,  so  only  the  principle  touched 
me.  As  long  as  I  am  always  prompt  to  my  classes, 
and  have  my  lessons  well,  and  have  no  intimate 
friend,  and  mind  my  own  business,  my  disobedience 
of  one  or  two  rules  will  be  winked  at.  I  do  not 
trouble  myself  to  stay  within  the  red  fence  when  I  see 
something  I  want  the  other  side. 

April  29.  Founder's  Day  exercises  opened  with 
music  on  the  organ.  Dr.  Raymond  offered  prayer, 
then  a  poem  was  read  by  the  composer,  one  of  the 
students,  then  Miss  Whitney  gave  the  address. 
She  is  a  tall,  commanding  looking  girl,  not  hand- 
some, but  intellectual.  She  was  dressed  in  black 
silk  with  a  lavender  bow.  She  had  a  long  watch 
chain  about  her  neck.  Her  hair  was  arranged 
plainly  and  she  wore  white  kid  gloves.  She  was 
a  good  representative  of  Vassar.  The  gestures 
were  admirable  and  the  voice  good.  There  is  little 
that  could  possibly  have  been  bettered  in  words  or 
ideas. 

Friday  afternoon  we  went  out  surveying,  took 
about  half  our  measurements.  I  intend  to  draw 
a  map  of  the  farm.  It  will  make  me  hurried,  but 
then  I  am  used  to  that. 

May  10.  I  laughed  at  your  reference  to  our 
training.  Why,  little  mother,  you  used  to  keep 
posted  on  the  world's  progress.  If  women  are  to 
vote,  they  ought  to  be  able  to  state  their  reasons 
for  thinking  in  a  certain  manner  on  the  subject. 


AT  COLLEGE  55 

I  hope  they  will  be  able  to  use  language  better 
than  most  of  the  men  and  not  make  such  a  fuss 
about  speaking  in  public.  I  do  not  care  to  have 
women  vote,  but  they  will  do  it,  in  my  opinion, 
while  you  are  living  and  they  ought  to  be  prepared 
for  it,  but  that  is  not  the  aim  of  the  work  here. 
We  only  do  our  own  talking.  We  read  our  own 
essays  and  of  course  we  ought  to  be  able  to  give 
our  sisters  our  ideas.  Miss  Whitney  was  speaking 
to  us,  not  to  a  public  audience.  The  place  was 
proper  and  fitting  for  her.  No  one  but  a  student 
was  fitted  to  give  a  eulogy  on  our  benefactor. 

And  as  to  surveying  it  is  light  work  compared 
with  washing.  The  chain  is  light  and  clean  and 
the  pins  also.  The  instrument  for  taking  obser- 
vations can  be  easily  carried  and  it  is  very  fine 
work  to  take  bearings.  We  cross  brooks  and  wood- 
land for  pleasure  and  pray  why  not  for  business? 
It  requires  a  good  deal  of  skill  to  go  over  a  fence 
or  a  wall  built  of  such  small  shaly  stones  as  the 
walls  here,  but  it  can  be  done  and  it  is  an  accom- 
plishment. I  do  not  mean  to  do  it  with  long 
dresses  and  hoop  skirts,  of  course  not.  I  find 
nothing  in  it  not  consistent  with  grace  or  virtue. 
I  prefer  surveying  for  a  week  to  spending  a  week 
in  fashionable  society  even  of  the  best  class  and 
there  would  be  far  less  danger.  Tell  Merrick  that 
when  I  come  home  I  will  be  ready  to  go  out  with 
him  and  test  my  capability.  Anything  that  will 


56  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

take  the  American  woman  out  of  doors  will  be  a 
blessing  to  her. 

Miss  Lyman  gave  the  girls  a  lecture  on  working 
in  the  garden.  She  said  that  some  of  the  finest 
ladies  she  knew  took  the  charge  of  both  the  vege- 
table garden  and  the  flowers  and  raked  and  did  the 
weeding.  At  first  she  was  shocked  to  see  the  ladies 
in  Canada  working  out  of  doors  but  she  found  that 
they  were  better  and  healthier  and  she  got  over 
her  prejudices.  I  think  you  will  have  to  make  up 
your  mind  to  do  the  same. 

May  16.  We  have  very  much  more  than  usual 
to  do  this  week.  In  calculus  Prof.  Farrar  is  anxious 
to  accomplish  an  immense  amount  of  work  in  this 
first  class  in  college.  We  have  a  lesson  of  ten  pages 
for  to-morrow.  The  class  of  '70  will  be  the  first 
under  the  new  system  and  will  be  the  best  trained 
of  any,  so  we  have  some  ambition.  I  am  really 
astonished  at  the  amount  of  work  we  do.  I  think 
few  men  in  college  do  as  much  as  we  do  here. 

It  is  not  orthodox  to  be  found  outside  the  grounds 
except  in  parties  of  three,  so  that  if  one  is  hurt, 
one  can  stay  by  to  see  that  she  does  not  elope  and 
one  can  run  to  get  help.  Accidents  so  often  happen 
to  girls  walking  quietly  in  the  road,  that  this  is  of 
great  consequence!  ! 

People  have  a  curiosity  to  know  what  mon- 
strosity is  to  arise  from  my  ashes,  do  they?  I  feel 
much  like  saying,  confound  their  base  ideas  of  true 


AT  COLLEGE  57 

education.  But  I  will  only  say,  tell  all  such  inter- 
ested individuals  that  my  aim  is  now,  as  it  has  been 
for  the  past  ten  years,  to  make  myself  a  true  woman, 
one  worthy  of  the  name,  and  one  who  will  unshrink- 
ingly follow  the  path  which  God  marks  out,  one 
whose  aim  is  to  do  all  of  the  good  she  can  in  the 
world  and  not  to  be  one  of  the  delicate  little  dolls 
or  the  silly  fools  who  make  up  the  bulk  of  American 
women,  slaves  to  society  and  fashion.  I  do  not 
intend  to  ever  say  anything  in  reply  to  the  half 
sarcastic  inquiries  and  covert  sneers  I  have  heard 
so  much  from  those  who  think  that  a  person  must 
have  a  profession  if  she  has  been  to  college.  Col- 
lege is  a  place  to  learn.  When  you  find  what  stuff 
you  are  made  of,  then  is  the  time  to  choose  and 
study  a  profession,  if  ever.  I  only  say  this  to  quiet 
your  sensitive  nerves  and  to  give  you  a  weapon  with 
which  to  defend  your  pride.  I  do  not  wish  any 
defense  for  myself. 

May  21.  Nothing  of  general  interest  has  occurred. 
One  of  the  society  chapters  had  an  entertainment. 
At  the  German  table  Miss  Kapp  proposed  a  paper, 
to  be  called,  Die  Schwalbe,  the  German  for  Swallow, 
with  editors  and  a  staff  of  correspondents.  I  am 
to  collect  items  and  anecdotes  and  translate  them 
into  German. 

Do  not  worry  about  me.  Miss  Lyman  has  no 
cause  to  complain  of  me.  I  never  fail  in  my  college 
duty,  so  I  do  not  have  to  get  excused.  The  faculty 


58  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

have  granted  my  every  wish  and  there  is  no  chance 
for  trouble.  I  always  study  causes  and  effects 
wherever  I  am,  so  I  must  criticise  sometimes. 

May  30.  (Abstract  of  sermon  by  Rev.  Mr.  Cox, 
of  Brooklyn.)  Thanks  for  your  kind  sympathy 
in  my  suffering  (an  ulcerated  tooth,  reported  the 
week  before).  It  was  indeed  severe,  "but  this  body 
must  be  subject  to  the  mind  and  the  philosopher 
must  learn  to  control  his  nerves  and  not  let  pain 
hinder  the  process  of  his  thought,"  as  Mr.  Cox  so 
beautifully  said.  "Serenity  is  not  natural.  It  is 
a  virtue.  Calmness  is  a  Christian  grace." 

On  Wednesday,  by  a  special  favor  from  various 
officers  of  the  College  from  Miss  Lyman  down,  I 
was  offered,  without  my  seeking  it,  a  place  with 
a  party  going  across  the  river  on  a  botanical  expe- 
dition. I  enjoyed  the  trip  very  much.  It  was  the 
first  time  I  had  been  in  a  conveyance  of  any  kind 
since  Christmas. 


CHAPTER    IV 

AT  COLLEGE — continued 
1869-1870 

September  21.  It  is  so  good  to  get  back  to 
studying. 

Sabbath  morning.  A  message  came  that  Miss 
Lyman  wished  to  see  me  in  her  parlor  at  eleven. 
She  had  fifteen  or  twenty  of  the  active  Christian 
workers  to  meet  her  and  consult  on  religious  mat- 
ters in  College  and  make  suggestions.  We  were 
there  nearly  two  hours. 

Wednesday.  I  spoke  with  the  President  yester- 
day concerning  my  studies  for  the  next  semester. 
Shall  re-read  Wayland's  Moral  Science  and  he  will 
examine  me.  Then  I  shall  take  political  economy 
and  physiology  thus  completing  the  whole  curricu- 
lum, excepting  Greek,  and  a  year  each  of  French 
and  Latin. 

Wednesday.  What  think  you?  The  senior  class 
must  read  their  compositions  on  the  platform  in 
public!  We  are  horror  stricken.  Miss  Morse  sent 
for  me  and  wished  to  have  me  take  an  oversight  of 
a  little  friend  of  hers  who  has  trouble  with  her  Latin, 
so  that  brings  in  a  little  pin  money. 

59 


60  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

October  10.  I  have  helped  three  different  girls 
out  of  mathematical  difficulties  during  the  week  and 
had  to  submit  to  being  thanked  and  kissed.  I  find 
my  eyrie  on  the  fifth  floor  is  not  so  secluded  a  place 
as  I  had  fancied.  [Her  room  for  this  year  was 
chosen  primarily  for  its  secure  quiet,  but  also  for 
its  glorious  view,  with  the  sunsets  over  the  long, 
dark  line  of  the  Highlands  of  the  Hudson  and  the 
peaks  of  the  Shawangunk.  There  were  not  more 
than  half  a  dozen  others  who  for  various  reasons 
had  chosen  these  upper  rooms,  and  as  they  were 
a  fairly  law-abiding  set,  there  was  no  surveillance 
by  corridor  teachers  and  little  interruption  from 
idle  visitors.] 

October  17.  (Contains  an  account  of  the  trip 
to  Rondout  by  the  geological  class.)  This  is  the 
first  day  I  ever  wore  my  gymnastic  suit  all  day  long. 
I  hope  it  will  help  bring  the  day  when  such  suits 
will  be  worn.  It  is  so  suitable.  I  wonder  if  the 
Poughkeepsie  Journal  will  chronicle  the  wonderful 
sight.  We  have  often  ridden  through  town  but  never 
walked  their  streets  before. 

October  20.  Our  first  hour  in  the  laboratory. 
Prof.  Farrar  encourages  us  to  be  very  thorough 
there,  as  the  profession  of  an  analytical  chemist  is 
very  profitable  and  means  very  nice  and  delicate 
work  fitted  for  ladies'  hands.  I  also  made  my  first 
observation  of  the  sun,  which  I  shall  keep  up  every 
day  at  noon.  There  were  only  three  little  spots 
to-day. 


AT  COLLEGE  61 

One  of  the  seniors,  who  is  in  astronomy  comes 
to  me  sometimes  for  a  little  light  and  she  thinks 
I  am  "awful  good." 

My  plants  are  doing  very  nicely.  The  rose  is 
growing  fast  also  the  ivy,  and  several  geraniums. 

The  Synods  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey  are  in 
session  in  the  city  and  are  coming  out  to  see  us  this 
afternoon.  We  are  to  assemble  in  chapel  and  show 
ourselves,  literally  make  our  best  bow,  as  the  Presi- 
dent introduces  the  Moderator.  This  body  visited 
the  ground  six  years  ago  and  encouraged  Mr.  Vassar 
in  his  undertaking,  and  the  President  felt  it  a  duty 
to  ask  them  out  now. 

Later.  The  Reverends  have  just  arrived.  A 
large  open  wagon,  two  omnibuses  and  many  hacks 
and  carriages.  I  should  think  the  whole  two  hun- 
dred were  here.  College  is  put  in  apple  pie  order 
for  them  to  see. 

October  24.  The  visit  of  the  Synod  passed  off 
well.  One  hundred  and  fifty  ministers  were  packed 
in  a  dense  black  mass  on  the  platform  to  look  at 
us.  Dr.  William  Adams  of  New  York  spoke  very 
well.  Said  he  felt  it  to  be  one  of  the  greatest 
privileges  of  his  life,  etc. 

I  have  nothing  further  to  record  of  the  past 
week,  only  it  has  been  full  of  blessing  and  mercy. 
I  have  been  well,  learned  much  and  able  to  help 
others. 

October  26.    I  spent  nearly  an  hour  in  the  obs.erv- 


62  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

atory  last  night  looking  through  the  telescope.  It 
was  a  new  experience  and  a  delightful  one.  I  saw 
considerable,  though  Miss  Mitchell  said  I  must  not 
expect  to  do  much  the  first  night.  I  thought  Jupiter 
and  his  moons  were  magnificent  through  the  little 
telescope,  but  Miss  Mitchell  let  me  look  through 
the  large  one,  the  third  in  size  in  the  country,  after- 
wards, and  it  was  beyond  description.  The  round 


The  Observatory 

planet  with  its  beautiful  colored  light,  and  so  close 
to  it  the  bright  moons.  To-day  the  sun  is  very  tur- 
bulent. The  spots  that  have  been  quiet  for  four 
days  have  disappeared  and  changed  greatly.  Last 
night  the  aurora  was  wonderfully  beautiful. 

We  are  to  have  three  lectures  on  Egypt  by  Dr. 
Thompson.  I  expect  they  will  be  treats. 

October  30.  I  wonder  if  it  is  because  I  am  doing 
more  good  that  I  enjoy  so  much  more  than  last 
year.  I  thought  then  that  nothing  could  be  better 


AT  COLLEGE  63 

than  to  see  and  hear  so  much  of  value,  but  last 
night,  after  our  natural  history  meeting,  where 
Prof.  Orton  told  us  seven  what  we  might  do  for 
science,  thinking  of  that  and  of  my  astronomy  and 
chemistry  and  of  the  world  whose  door  is  now  wide 
open  to  me,  I  felt  as  though  I  could  never  murmur 
at  anything  again,  but  could  be  useful  and  contented 
in  learning,  any  where  that  I  might  be.  I  feel  as 
though  I  was  fast  on  my  way  to  the  third  heaven, 
if  not  already  there.  I  do  not  wonder  at  the  enthu- 
siasm of  an  Agassiz  or  a  Livingstone. 

November  7.  My  life  is  becoming  very  busy, 
as  it  always  does.  The  old  woman's  prophecy  is 
surely  being  fulfilled.  (Referring  to  the  meeting 
in  Lowell  of  a  person  who  stopped  me  on  the  street 
and  said  "And  you  have  a  great  deal  of  work  to 
do.") 

The  first  of  importance  to  tell  you  is  that  on 
Thursday  I  found  the  nebula  that  I  found  the  week 
before.  Miss  Mitchell  was  very  much  pleased  and 
said  that  I  showed  a  facility  with  instruments  and 
with  my  eyes  that  promised  well.  I  do  not  know 
yet  if  it  is  a  real  discovery  or  if  some  one  had  seen 
it  before.  Miss  Mitchell  does  not  know  it.  I  shall 
be  much  hurried  this  week  and  next  on  account  of 
the  meteors.  ...  I  must  sleep  on  Saturday  and 
Sunday  as  much  as  possible  as  Miss  Mitchell  needs 
six  or  seven  of  us  with  her  Saturday  and  Sunday 
nights,  and  there  are  few  girls  who  are  able  to 
do  it. 


64  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

November  14-  On  Friday  night  I  determined  to 
wake  up  at  three  in  the  morning.  I  did  it  within 
three  minutes.  It  was  quite  clear  and  I  went  into 
the  Lithological  cabinet  on  this  floor,  perched  up 
in  the  window  and  watched  for  meteors.  I  saw  eight 
in  an  hour,  two  very  fine  ones.  Last  night  was  very 
dubious,  but  two  of  the  advanced  class,  the  only 
post-graduate,  and  myself  went  to  the  observatory 
at  ten  o'clock.  It  was  quite  an  honor  that  Miss 
Mitchell  chose  me  of  all  her  class  of  fourteen  to  be 
her  aid.  She  ordered  Miss  B.  and  myself  to  lie  on 
the  lounges  in  her  sitting  room.  We  were  not  to 
raise  our  heads,  or  speak  if  Miss  Mitchell  came  in 
to  look  at  instruments,  unless  she  called  us.  It 
cleared  up  at  quarter  of  eleven,  the  stars  came  out 
quite  bright.  One  very  brilliant  meteor  flashed 
through  the  haze  in  the  north.  I  was  the  only  one 
at  the  observatory  who  saw  that,  for  I  had  drawn 
the  lounge  to  the  east  window  where  I  could  see 
clearly.  In  ten  minutes  it  was  cloudy  again.  Miss 
Mitchell  said  it  was  one  of  the  darkest  nights  that 
she  ever  knew.  At  five  we  went  sound  asleep  and 
slept  until  half  past  six.  So  ended  our  famous 
meteor  night. 

The  first  two  of  the  senior  essays  were  read  last 
night.  The  Faculty  freely  and  without  demur  or 
condition  admitted  me  to  the  class  of  '70  last  night 
and  highly  complimented  me  on  my  meekness  and 
patience  in  quietly  waiting  these  six  weeks. 


AT  COLLEGE  65 

As  to  a  box,  I  should  enjoy  it  during  the  Christ- 
mas vacation,  if  it  won't  cost  too  much  and  take  too 
much  of  your  time  to  prepare  it.  I  suppose  I  do 
not  need  it,  for  I  have  all  that  is  necessary  here, 
and  am  getting  quite  stout.  My  body  does  not 
need  pampering.  I  should  like  it  only  because  it 
came  from  home. 

November  °21.  We  are  to  have  company  in  two 
classes  to-morrow  and  are  to  have  extra  lessons. 
Much  responsibility  is  thrown  on  us  for  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  College.  Nobody  knows  how  we  work 
here.  It  is  really  marvelous.  No  other  institution 
can  show  whole  classes  of  such  hard  workers. 

November  28.  I  went  down  to  the  meat  cellar 
yesterday  and  weighed  myself,  123  Ibs. 

There  is  an  article  in  the  North  American  on  the 
Civil  Service  Reform  which  father  ought  to  read 
in  order  to  keep  posted  in  political  affairs. 

December  3.  One  cannot  understand  Vassar 
until  they  have  been  here.  I  speak  advisedly  when 
I  say  there  is  no  such  work  done  in  any  institution 
in  the  country.  All  professors  say  so  who  have 
been  in  other  places.  All  students  say  so.  One 
teacher  who  has  been  principal  of  a  young  ladies" 
seminary  says  the  same.  All  bear  testimony  they 
never  knew  what  could  be  done.  Our  very  play  is 
hard  work. 

December  5.  Miss  Mitchell  says  that  I  may  have 
two  little  telescopes  here  during  the  vacation  and 


66  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

make  all  the  discoveries  I  please.  I  am  planning 
much  for  the  two  weeks.  Prof.  Farrar  says  that 
butyric  acid  which  is  formed  in  strong  butter  is 
one  of  the  worst  poisons.  It  works  so  slowly  that 
one  does  not  know  what  is  the  matter,  but  it  un- 
dermines the  health  surely.  Avoid  strong  butter 
wherever  you  are. 

December  19.  The  President  preached  a  Christ- 
mas sermon  to-day.  Everybody  talks  so  much 
about  Christmas.  I  realize  fully  that  I  am  not  in 
New  England,  and  though  I  try  to  be  very  liberal, 
yet  dear  old  Massachusetts  is  dearer  than  ever. 

The  senior  who  read  her  essay  last  night  suffered 
everything  almost.  She  cried  over  it  a  great  deal, 
and  when  she  went  up  on  the  platform  she  was  white 
as  marble.  I  expected  to  see  her  sink  to  the  floor, 
although  she  had  a  fine  essay.  Prof.  Farrar  does 
not  think  it  right  to  subject  the  girls  to  such  a 
strain  and  he  will  not  go  in  to  hear  them.  It  is 
almost  martyrdom  to  some  of  them,  for  they  will 
be  judged  by  it,  however  unjustly.  Miss  Mitchell 
will  not  hear  any  of  her  girls  read,  strong  woman 
that  she  is. 

Miss  Mitchell  told  me  yesterday  that  Prof. 
Henry  of  the  Smithsonian  wished  some  one  to  under- 
take the  meteorological  record  here;  that  I  could 
do  it  if  I  would.  Instruments  would  be  furnished 
me  and  I  can  keep  them  after  I  leave  here  and  con- 
tinue the  work  if  I  please.  I  shall  undertake  this. 
Mr.  Mitchell  used  to  do  it  as  long  as  he  was  able. 


AT  COLLEGE  67 

College  has  been  in  a  ferment  to-day.  Some  weeks 
ago  the  Students'  Association  requested  the  Lecture 
Committee  to  invite  Wendell  Phillips  to  deliver  his 
lecture  on  the  Lost  Arts.  Dr.  Raymond  told  us 
this  morning  that  we  were  refused;  that  the  Com- 
mittee had  one  member  who  would  not  hear  him  or 
let  any  member  of  his  family  hear  him,  and  one  who 
would  hear  him  rather  than  anybody  else.  The 
other  three  members  stood  between  in  their  opin- 
ions. They  thought  that  a  man  so  identified  with 
extreme  views  ought  not  to  come  here  as  we  were 
not  to  be  exposed  to  radical  doctrines  of  any  sort. 
"The  sacred  trust  of  fathers  and  mothers"  etc. 
To-night  we  held  a  meeting  of  the  Philalethean 
Society  and  requested  the  secretary  to  ask  the 
Faculty  to  have  Wendell  Phillips  lecture  before 
them  and  that  they  might  sell  tickets,  so  that  no 
one  should  come  unless  sensitive  papas  and  mammas 
were  willing.  We  are  about  tired  of  poky  lectures. 
This  year  has  been  better  than  last  but  we  want 
the  best. 

December  29.  So  far  this  vacation  has  more 
than  realized  my  highest  anticipations  of  profit  and 
enjoyment.  Friday  evening  some  ten  or  twelve  of 
us  had  a  candy  pull  in  Prof.  Farrar's  kitchen,  a 
fine  time  which  he  enjoyed  as  well  as  we.  Saturday 
evening  we  all  gathered  in  the  college  parlors  and 
the  President  read  to  us  Dickens'  Christmas  Carol. 
It  was  a  great  treat  and  every  one  enjoyed  it.  We 
then  had  ice  cream  and  cake  and  a  social  time. 


68 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 


I  never  fully  realized  how  much  a  New  England 
birth  was  worth.  I  am  so  happy  that  that  was  my 
lot.  It  is  a  great  deal  in  these  days.  I  feel  it  so 
keenly  now  when  I  am  away  from  it  among  a  strange 
people  almost.  Dear  old  New  England  is  the  home 
of  all  that  is  good  and  noble  with  all  her  sternness 
and  uncompromising  opinions. 


1870 

January  5.  The  last  day  of  quiet.  I  am  very 
sorry.  I  have  enjoyed  this  so  much.  I  have  accom- 
plished a  great  deal  in  one  way  and  another. 

I  shall  save  in  money  all  that  I  can,  for  I  want 


AT  COLLEGE  69 

a  telescope  more  than  anything  else.  I  am  per- 
fectly content  with  whatever  clothes  I  have.  I 
have  enough  in  my  head  to  balance  what  is  wanting 
on  my  back.  I  am  just  as  happy  as  if  I  had  a 
dozen  dresses,  and  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  a  contented  spirit  is  a  great  boon. 

With  regard  to  the  essays,  we  would  not  mind 
an  ordinary  essay,  but  this  is  felt  to  be  a  test  of 
our  class  standing  and  an  unfair  one  at  that.  It 
is  an  unheard  of  thing,  so  far  as  I  know,  in  any 
college  and  we  feel  that  it  is  very  different  from 
reading  at  a  literary  entertainment. 

January  23.  I  went  up  to  Sunrise  Hill  with  Miss 
Mitchell's  niece  yesterday  morning.  It  was  like 
May. 

January  31.  I  am  doing  nicely  in  all  my  studies 
now  and  am  not  fretting  over  the  examinations 
which  occur  Thursday  and  Friday.  Much  depends 
on  keeping  cool  and  I  believe  I  have  that  faculty. 

February  13.  I  wish  you  could  have  heard 
the  good  things  I  have  heard  to-day.  First 
Prof.  Farrar's  Bible  lesson,  taking  up  the  life  of 
David,  then  this  afternoon  and  evening,  Rev.  Mr. 
Sanders  of  Ceylon,  told  us  of  the  Island,  the  people 
and  the  work  there.  I  almost  wanted  to  go  to  India 
after  hearing  his  stories. 

We  are  fairly  on  our  way  now  in  all  our  new 
studies.  My  yesterday's  work  was,  physiology  at  9, 
astronomy  at  9-45,  logic  at  10-30,  chemistry  at  12. 


70  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

I  learned  my  physiology  -and  astronomy  for  to-day 
between  11-15  and  12.  A  class  meeting  fifteen 
minutes  came  after  dinner.  I  studied  German  what 
time  I  could  find  in  the  afternoon  besides  thirty- 
five  minutes  with  a  pupil  in  Latin,  forty-five  minutes 
for  elocution,  thirty  minutes  with  a  classmate  in 
astronomy  who  did  not  quite  understand  the  lesson, 
until  5  o'clock,  when  I  rested  forty-five  minutes, 
then  dressed  my  hair  and  myself  for  tea.  After 
chapel  spent  an  hour  with  Miss  T.  in  Latin.  At 
8  o'clock  went  to  the  President  to  hear  him  read 
Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson  until  9.  Took  a  bath, 
read  over  the  logic  for  to-day  and  was  in  bed  before 
the  bell  struck  at  10.  Wasn't  that  a  good  day's 
work?  There  were  a  dozen  other  little  things,  such 
as  my  weather  record,  a  visit  to  the  steward's  de- 
partment for  a  bone,  a  call  on  my  former  parlor- 
mate,  etc. 

The  world  moves,  but  we  seem  to  move  with  it. 
When  I  studied  physiology  before  (when  I  was  a 
little  girl  of  seven  years  old)  there  were  two  hun- 
dred and  eight  bones  in  the  body.  Now  there  are 
two  hundred  and  thirty-eight.  I  think  father  would 
be  delighted  to  see  Miss  Mitchell  lecturing  me  this 
morning,  because  I  ignored  one  one-hundredth  of  a 
second  in  an  astronomical  calculation.  "While  you 
are  doing  it,  you  might  as  well  do  it  to  a  nicety." 
That  is  the  only  thing  she  has  ever  complained  of 
me  for. 


AT  COLLEGE  71 

February  20.  I  am  not  fretted  with  my  work 
after  all.  My  lessons  are  not  hard  and  they  are 
interesting,  and  I  find  some  time  to  read,  but  it  is 
mostly  scientific  reading.  .  .  . 

We  have  had  no  good  observing  weather  of  late. 
When  it  does  come,  we  shall  improve  it  whether  we 
do  anything  else  or  not.  There  is  so  much  to  do 
that,  as  usual,  I  shall  do  part  of  everything  and 
content  myself  with  that  and  not  try  to  outshine 
the  rest.  I  came  here  for  self-culture  and  not  for 
honors.  My  talent  does  not  lie  in  recitation. 
"Great  executive  ability"  has  been  Miss  Mitchell's 
and  Prof.  Backus'  only  compliment  for  me. 

February  27.  Friday  I  stayed  up  until  nearly 
half  past  eleven.  I  found  some  star  clusters  which 
I  thought  Miss  Mitchell  did  not  know.  She  was 
greatly  pleased  and  said  to  me,  "Do  not  spend  any 
money  on  knicknacks  until  you  buy  yourself  a  tele- 
scope. You  will  make  valuable  discoveries  in  the 
course  of  your  life." 

We  had  our  Chapter  meeting  Friday  night  and 
the  criticism  of  the  last  meeting  was  read.  The 
critic  of  the  evening  was  the  best  scholar  of  the 
class  and  I  was  delighted  with  her  criticism  of 
my  essay.  She  said  it  was  well  delivered,  showed 
thought  and  study.  There  was  no  attempt  at 
ornament  which  caused  a  little  lack  of  smooth- 
ness. It  had  the  three  elements  of  a  good  essay, 
thought,  information,  and  urging  us  to  action. 


72  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Monday  was  a  busy  day.  I  went  to  five  recita- 
tions, spent  three  periods  with  my  pupils,  went  to 
see  Miss  Lyman  for  the  first  time  this  year  at  her 
request,  that  she  might  give  me  authority  to  train 
the  delinquents  in  all  their  studies  "as  if  you  were 
their  mother."  .  .  . 

Miss  Lyman  said  today:  "Colleges  do  not  pre- 
tend to  finish,  seminaries  only  do  that.  They  make 
nice  little  flower  beds  with  the  seeds  all  planted 
in  rows  and  the  earth  smoothed  off  handsomely. 
Colleges  spaded  up  the  ground  deep  down  and  put 
in  guano,  mixed  it  up  thoroughly  that  whatever  is 
planted  there  afterward  has  a  luxuriant  growth." 

Yes,  I  know  I  take  up  too  many  things,  I  know 
that  I  am  careless  in  many  ways,  I  always  was, 
but  I  can  be  careful  enough  when  I  think  occa- 
sion requires  it,  and  I  have  decided  that  it  is 
not  worth  my  while  to  use  up  strength  in  going 
against  the  grain  where  it  is  not  necessary  in  order 
to  accomplish  a  great  end.  I  find  that  to  be  my 
greatest  fault  but  when  I  see  others  who  have  that 
virtue  and  yet  are  so  deficient  in  what  I  have  in 
great  abundance,  I  am  content  to  do  what  I  can 
in  my  own  way.  Miss  Mitchell  appreciates  highly 
in  me,  what  she  decidedly  lacks,  business  ability 
and  administrative  talent,  and  a  quick,  clear  in- 
sight into  things.  I  came  here  to  train  myself, 
not  to  make  a  show,  and  I  am  satisfied.  I 
am  better  off  than  those  who  are  so  anxious 


AT  COLLEGE  73 

about  class  honors.  I  shall  not  feel  badly  if 
I  get  none  of  them.  I  have  not  shown  my  full 
strength.  I  have  kept  in  my  corner  and  worked 
for  myself.  .  .  . 

I  would  like  to  enjoy  the  quiet  with  you  a  little 
while,  but  my  life  is  to  be  one  of  active  fighting. 

March  13.  My  teaching  seems  to  give  great 
satisfaction  for  Miss  Lyman  has  called  me  to 
her  twice  this  week  to  consult  on  poor  scholars, 
and  has  given  me  charge  of  her  niece  and  another 
young  girl  who  do  not  like  Latin.  I  enjoy  teach- 
ing and  find  that  my  previous  teachers  were  really 
superior;  that  my  knowledge  of  Latin  has  not 
gone,  only  faded  by  reason  of  dust,  and  can  be 
brushed  up  without  difficulty. 

Of  course  the  event  of  the  week  for  me  was  the 
essay  last  night  which  was  a  complete  success. 
My  voice  filled  the  chapel  without  effort  and  they 
said  I  seemed  to  have  any  amount  of  breath  and 
power  unexpended;  that  I  stood  there  just  as 
though  it  had  been  my  business  to  read  essays. 
I  never  felt  more  cool  and  collected  in  my  life, 
and  my  face  was  not  in  the  least  flushed,  nor  did 
a  nerve  quiver.  I  never  have  dreaded  it,  but  I  got 
off  better  than  I  expected.  Miss  Mitchell  would 
not  come  because  she  would  suffer  so  much,  al- 
though I  assured  her  I  should  not.  .  I  wore  my 
black  silk  with  lace  sleeves  and  my  class  pin, 
without  a  particle  of  color  about  me.  Everybody 
else  had  worn  bows  and  ribbons. 


74  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Miss  Mitchell  was  cautioning  one  of  her  girls 
the  other  day  about  looking  too  long  through  the 
telescope,  but  the  girl  was  obstinate,  when  Miss 
Mitchell  said,  "You  do  not  take  so  good  care  of 
yourself  as  Miss  Swallow  does." 

I  sympathize  with  father  and  I  wish  the  women's 
rights  folks  would  be  more  sensible.  I  think  the 
women  have  a  great  deal  to  learn,  before  they  are 
fit  to  vote. 

March  16.  In  calculus,  Prof.  Farrar  keeps  me 
in  reserve  to  call  upon  when  the  others  fail.  I 
ask  nothing  more,  only  longer  days  or  quicker 
memory.  There  is  so  much  to  do. 

March  20.  "Es  bildet  ein  Talent  sich  in  der 
Stille,  sich  ein  Character  in  dem  Strom  der  Welt." 
So  says  Goethe,  and  I've  been  making  a  talent 
here  in  the  quiet  of  my  life,  as  I  couldn't  if  I  had 
entered  into  the  rushing,  foaming  stream  that 
flows  even  here.  I  had  been  in  the  hurrying  waters 
too  long  not  to  appreciate  an  opportunity  to  lie 
on  the  bank  and  rest,  watch  others,  and  gain 
strength  for  the  coming  years.  Moreover,  I  am 
a  thorough-bred  democrat,  clear  to  the  marrow, 
as  perhaps  you  have  reason  to  know,  and  there 
is  too  much  of  aristocracy  and  particularly  mon- 
archy, in  the  air  of  the  College  for  me  to  safely 
pass  freely  about,  without  coming  into  collision  with, 
when  there  would  be  great  danger  of  an  explosion. 
I  early  learned  where  the  powder  magazines  were 


AT  COLLEGE  75 

situated,  and  carefully  avoided  the  vicinity,  but 
did  not  put  out  my  candle,  and  now  I  begin  to 
see  that  my  little  light  has  had  its  effect.  An 
extra  covering  is  thrown  over  the  fiery  material 
when  I  am  around,  so  that  I  can  come  nearer,  and 
I  feel  that  I've  conquered. 

Again,  time  is  too  precious  to  me  to  waste  in 
chitchat  and  gossip.  I  worked  too  hard  for  the 
opportunity  of  being  in  Vassar  College  to  throw 
away  any  of  it.  Very  few  people  pay  well  in 
intellectual  or  moral  coin  for  the  time  spent, 
therefore,  the  greatest  misfortune  to  me  would 
have  been  popularity  at  first. 

Once  more,  it  does  not  pay  well  to  strain  one's 
mind  and  spend  one's  time  to  be  sure  of  rattling 
off  rules  or  facts,  or  a  string  of  words  in  exact 
order,  when  there  are  so  many  principles  lying 
in  them  which  are  rich  in  thought  and  informa- 
tion. 7  didn't  take  the  200  topics  in  chemistry 
and  prepare  for  examination  by  studying  from 
beginning  to  end,  as  one  girl  did.  I  didn't  fail 
in  the  examination,  as  she  did,  when  a  question  a 
little  off  the  track  was  put,  and  I  wasn't  sick 
a  fortnight,  as  she  was.  I  gave  much  thought 
to  my  plan  of  life  here.  It  was  the  result  of 
cool  deliberate  judgment,  and  I  am  satisfied  with 
the  fruits.  .  .  . 

I  don't  think  I  can  be  called  an  idle  individual 
about  now,  five  studies,  laboratory  and  observa- 


76  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

tory  practice,  and  earning  $1.50  a  day,  as  much 
as  most  girls  do  who  work  all  day.  Tell  Father 
I  guess  I'll  beat  him.  And  the  money  is  not  all, 
I  have  gained  so  much  courage  to  find  that  my 
knowledge  comes  back  to  me  and  that  I  am  suc- 
cessful in  imparting  it.  The  recommendation  that 
will  be  ready  for  me,  will  be  valuable  some  day. 

Well,  I  must  hasten  to  the  news  items.  I've 
been  in  the  Laboratory  some  time,  helping  get 
ready  to  make  some  casts  for  your  mantel  shelf, 
and  this  week  we  are  to  begin  to  learn  photogra- 
phy. Last  night  was  a  clear  night,  for  a  wonder, 
and  I  was  out  on  the  stone  steps  of  the  Observa- 
tory two  and  one-half  hours,  and  got  pretty 
tired.  There  was  a  beautiful  aurora,  red  stream- 
ers and  brilliant  white  ones.  The  night  before, 
we  saw  the  planet  Uranus,  through  the  great 
telescope,  seventeen  hundred  million  miles  away. 

March  27.  I  am  getting  a  reputation  for  know- 
ing all  that  occurs  in  the  out-door  world.  Miss 
Mitchell  sends  to  me  if  she  wants  to  know  what 
happened  in  the  night,  or  how  the  stars  looked  at 
a  certain  time.  Dr.  Avery  told  one  of  the  girls 
on  this  floor  that  if  she  wanted  anything  in  the 
night,  she  could  call  on  me,  for  I  was  a  spook. 
I  was  amused,  for  I  had  never  heard  that  term.  I 
believe  it  is  the  darkey  term  for  ghost  or  spirit, 
that  wanders  about  in  the  night. 

Without    date.     Tuesday    night    we    heard   more 


AT  COLLEGE  77 

of  the  eccentric  Sam  Johnson.  The  President 
requested  the  girls  to  bring  their  knitting  work. 

April  3.  (From  one  of  the  latest  works  on 
physiology,  a  lot  of  rules  on  cooking  and  food.) 

April  10.  Five  of  us  left  the  College  yesterday 
morning  (this  was  the  Easter  vacation)  for  Fish- 
kill,  in  search  of  a  Graphite  Mill  which  our  text- 
book in  mineralogy  said  was  there.  That  was  all 
we  knew.  (Follows  a  full  account  of  the  trip.) 

I  was  up  in  the  night  and  found  seven  new  star 
clusters,  and  three  new  nebulae,  which  will  delight 
Miss  Mitchell. 

April  17.  I  shall  wear  my  white  dress  to  grad- 
uate in.  I  could  have  nothing  prettier.  Miss 
Lyman  said  that  she  did  not  know  why  we  should 
have  new  dresses,  and  I  can  do  my  share  toward 
creating  a  different  style  of  dress.  A  senior  has 
some  influence  you  know,  and  the  professors,  espe- 
cially Prof.  Van  Ingen,  are  much  opposed  to  long 
dresses  and  finery.  It  hurts  the  College.  I  have 
lived  up  to  my  principles  on  dress  while  here  and 
hope  that  I  have  done  some  good. 

April  24.  I  do  not  see  the  use  of  a  veil  for  me. 
I  never  wear  one  over  my  face  and  I  do  not  want 
it  because  it  is  the  fashion.  That  is  against  my 
principles. 

May  1.  I  shall  have  to  wait  until  I  see  you 
for  my  raptures  over  George  William  Curtis. 
He  made  himself  doubly  dear  by  asking  it  as  a 


78  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

privilege  to  do  so  much  from  love  and  not  for 
pay.  He  spoke  of  our  having  an  opportunity  to 
show  what  our  needs  and  capacities  were,  not  in 
a  hot  house,  but  like  a  tree,  symmetrical  in  all 
directions.  It  was  the  best  women's  rights  speech 
I  ever  heard.  Suffrage,  the  ballot  or  rights,  were 
not  mentioned.  [A  large  photograph  of  Mr. 
Curtis  hung  in  her  bedroom  up  to  the  time  of  her 
death.] 

Wednesday.  I  hope  I  can  remember  Miss  Mitch- 
ell's story  of  her  experiences  at  Rome  when  I 
get  home,  how  she  got  into  the  Observatory  of 
Father  Secchi,  which  no  woman  had  ever  entered, 
and  where  Mrs.  Somerville  and  Caroline  Herschel 
had  vainly  tried.  How  she  would  not  ask  the  Pope 
herself,  because  she  would  have  to  kiss  his  hand, 
which  she  thought  beneath  the  dignity  of  an 
American,  but  she  got  Mr.  Cass,  the  American 
minister,  to  get  her  permission. 

Tuesday.  As  Lizzie  Coffin  and  I  went  in  to 
Chemistry  class  to-day,  Prof.  Farrar  said,  "Dr. 
Coffin  and  Prof.  Swallow." 

The  two  happy  years  at  Vassar  were  brought  to 
a  close  by  a  botanical  expedition  to  the  Catskills 
in  company  with  a  party  of  college  friends.  The 
last  entries  in  her  pocket  diary  are : 

Wednesday,  June  15.  Rose  at  3%,  walked  to 
the  station.  Went  to  Mountain  House.  Thursday. 


AT  COLLEGE  79 

Explored.  Friday.  Came  back.  Successful  trip. 
Monday.  Mother  came.  Tuesday.  Class  Day. 
All  went  well.  Wednesday.  Commencement.  A.B. 
Said  goodby.  All  kind.  Friday.  Home. 


CHAPTER    V 

STUDENT    OF    CHEMISTRY 

THE  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
founded  for  the  purpose  of  offering  advanced  in- 
struction in  science  and  opportunity  for  research, 
and  of  making  a  connection  between  science  and 
/  the  industrial  arts,  was  opened  to  students  in  the 
I  year  1865,  the  same  year  that  Vassar  was  opened. 
Up  to  the  year  1871,  its  students  were  all  men. 
In  January  of  that  year,  a  woman  was  admitted  as 
a  special  student  in  chemistry.  On  the  morning  of 
her  entrance,  she  had  an  interview  with  the  presi- 
dent, Dr.  J.  D.  Runkle,  who,  having  worked  valiantly 
for  her  admission,  was  from  the  first  deeply  inter- 
ested in  her  success.  He  introduced  her  to  the 
only  other  woman  in  the  building,  Mrs.  E.  A.  Stin- 
son,  the  assistant  in  charge  of  the  chemical  store- 
room, and  asked  that  arrangements  be  made  for 
her  comfort.  Later  in  the  day,  when  passing  the 
storeroom,  he  inquired  of  Mrs.  Stinson  how  the 
young  woman  was  getting  on.  "She  looks  rather 
frail  to  take  such  a  difficult  course,"  Mrs.  Stinson 
said.  "But  did  you  notice  her  eyes?"  was  his 
reply.  "They  are  steadfast  and  they  are  coura- 
geous. She  will  not  fail." 

80 


STUDENT  OF  CHEMISTRY  81 

The  new  student  with  courage  in  her  eyes  was 
Ellen  Swallow,  who  seven  months  before  had  been  A 
graduated  from  Vassar  College.  The  story  of  how 
she  succeeded  in  becoming  the  first  woman  to  enter 
the  Institute  of  Technology,  or,  for  that  matter,  the 
first  woman  to  enter  any  such  strictly  scientific 
school  in  the  United  States,  makes  an  important 
chapter  in  the  history  of  woman's  education. 

When  she  left  college  there  was  little  to  determine 
her  future  course  except  a  leaning  towards  science 
and  a  need  for  self-support.  Like  most  educated 
women  of  her  day  she  turned  to  teaching  as  a  means 
of  livelihood.  Unlike  most  of  them,  however,  she 
thought  of  any  teaching  she  might  at  this  time  do 
as  only  a  stepping-stone  to  more  advanced  work. 
With  her  eager  desire  for  wider  experience,  she 
seems  not  to  have  considered  any  position  short  of 
California,  and  finally  decided  upon  South  America. 
At  the  time  of  her  graduation  she  was  under  ap- 
pointment to  go  in  the  autumn  to  the  Argentine 
Republic,  as  one  of  six  teachers  engaged  by  Presi- 
dent Sarmiento.  But  the  Argentine  Republic  was 
at  that  time  in  a  state  of  war,  and  during  the 
summer  conditions  became  so  unsettled  that  the  gov- 
ernment was  obliged  to  break  its  contract  with  the 
teachers  from  the  United  States. 

The  final  word  concerning  the  change  of  plan 
did  not  reach  Miss  Swallow  until  late  in  the 
summer.  In  the  meantime  she  watched  and  waited. 


82  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

On  August  21  she  wrote  to  a  friend,  "I  do  want 
to  go  if  it  is  best,  but  I  am  afraid  that  selfish 
ambition  is  too  much  at  the  root  of  my  desire  for 
it  to  be  granted." 

She  did  not,  however,  content  herself  with  watch- 
ing and  waiting;  she  worked  also.  The  first  three 
weeks  after  her  return  from  college  she  describes 
as  "one  grand  Aunt  Dinah's  clarin'  up  time."  Her 
mother  had  been  sick  all  winter,  and  the  work  had 
run  behind.  She  set  about,  therefore,  not  only  clean- 
ing house,  but  also  getting  her  own  and  her  mother's 
wardrobes  into  shape.  According  to  a  letter  written 
on  July  26,  she  got  out  all  her  trunks,  boxes,  and 
bureau  drawers ;  she  sorted,  mended,  washed,  and 
ironed,  and  arranged  all  her  worldly  possessions 
for  the  summer.  She  papered  her  room,  made  "a 
nice  toilet  stand  out  of  two  empty  tea  chests,  a 
piece  of  heavy  bedspread  and  some  white  fringe," 
took  up  and  put  down  entry  carpets  and  other 
carpets;  took  up  and  set  out  plants;  ripped  up 
dresses,  washed,  turned  them,  and  made  them  over. 
To  this  long  recital  of  activities  she  added,  "So 
you  may  imagine  I  have  not  had  time  to  be  very 
misanthropic,"  and  "I  take  books  from  the  library 
to  read  when  I  sit  down  for  a  few  minutes  to  cool 
off." 

"Don't  you  see,"  she  wrote  later  to  a  friend 
whose  plans  were  also  unsettled,  "how  wisely  our 
different  natures  have  been  provided  for  during 


STUDENT  OF  CHEMISTRY  83 

these  weeks?  You  need  some  outside  aid  to  quell 
jour  inward  disquiet,  and  you've  had  it  under  cir- 
cumstances calculated  to  draw  your  thoughts  from 
yourself.  I,  always  self-reliant,  have  had  to  fight 
my  battles  alone  and  unaided.  I  have  those  around 
me  who  look  to  me  for  help  in  their  trials,  never 
dreaming  that  I  have  any." 

The  South  American  plan  having  failed,  she 
apparently  decided  to  take  a  little  leisure  in  which 
to  meditate  upon  what  to  do  next.  On  Septem- 
ber 15,  she  started  upon  a  three  weeks'  trip  to 
Nashua,  Dunstable,  Westford,  and  Littleton.  "I 
went  to  my  birthplace,"  she  wrote  on  October  8. 
"Saw  great  trees  planted  by  my  hand,  great  boys 
nearly  six  feet  high  whom  I  had  rocked  in  the  cradle, 
and  felt  the  wrinkles  deepen  and  the  old  in  my  joints 
at  the  sight.  I  visited  new  households  formed  since 
my  last  visit  some  four  years  ago,  and  found  babies 
in  abundance.  I  liked  my  new  cousins  and  thought 
the  world  would  be  peopled  without  my  troubling 
myself  in  the  matter.  ...  I  went  to  Littleton  and 
saw  the  dear  faces  and  was  welcomed  most  heartily. 

"Well,  here  I  am,"  she  continued,  "no  nearer 
my  winter's  work  than  when  I  left  you,  to  any 
earthly  eye.  I  have  tried  several  doors  and  they 
won't  open.  I  am  not  discouraged  or  blue  at  all. 
I've  full  faith  that  the  right  thing  will  come  in  time. 
I've  only  to  work  and  wait.  I've  lived  in  the  greatest 
calmness  all  summer,  not  feeling  the  old  unrest  and 


84  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

fretting  against  the  fetters,  and  I  know  the  blessing 
of  contentment. 

"I  wonder  if  there  would  be  any  chance  for  me 
to  take  private  pupils  in  Latin  in  the  Western 
cities.  I  think  I  would  do  it  though  I  believe  I 
would  go  into  a  chemist's  shop  in  preference.  Does 
Dayton  boast  any  drug  stores  or  the  like?  Would 
it  be  advisable  for  me  to  advertise,  think  you,  for 
a  situation  in  such  a  place?  I  rather  want  to  dip 
into  some  science. 

"I  often  feel  as  if  I  must  have  something  good 
in  store  for  me  so  many  people  give  expressions  of 
confidence  in  my  future — never  a  croaking  word 
do  I  get.  I  hope  I  shall  not  neglect  the  right 
thing  when  it  comes,  but  I  begin  to  feel  anxious  to 
see  something  done.  I  can't  lie  idle  and  must  stir 
in  some  direction." 

On  the  day  after  this  letter  was  written,  she 
must  have  decided  in  what  direction  to  stir,  for  she 
wrote  to  Merrick  and  Gray,  commercial  chemists  in 
Boston,  asking  them  if  they  would  take  her  as  an 
apprentice.  Her  final  decision  to  study  chemistry 
was  probably  reached  through  a  desire  to  help  her 
father  in  the  new  business  upon  which  he  had 
entered,  that  of  manufacturing  building  stone.  She 
wrote  to  commercial  chemists  because  no  school  then 
open  to  women  offered  more  chemistry  than  she  had 
had  at  Vassar.  Merrick  and  Gray  replied  that  they 
were  not  in  a  position  to  take  pupils,  and  that  her 


STUDENT  OF  CHEMISTRY  85 

best  course  was  to  try  to  enter  the  Institute  of 
Technology  of  Boston  as  a  student — a  most  ex- 
traordinary piece  of  advice  to  be  given  to  a  woman 
in  1870.  She  realized  that  if  she  acted  upon  it  she 
must  do  so  unaided,  with  no  support  or  encourage- 
ment from  her  friends. 

"  There's  no  sense  in  going  further  —  it's  the  edge  of  cultivation," 
they  said  to  her  in  effect.  But  she  decided  that 
the  time  had  come  for  the  "edge  of  cultivation"  to 
be  pushed  a  little  further  forward,  and  wrote  at 
once  to  the  Institute  of  Technology,  asking  if  the 
school  admitted  women,  and  giving  as  references 
Maria  Mitchell  and  Professor  Farrar.  To  this 
letter  she  received  no  answer  for  four  weeks.  In 
the  meantime  she  wrote  to  Booth  and  Garrett,  of 
Philadelphia,  another  firm  of  chemists.  These  good 
Quaker  gentlemen  replied,  on  November  14,  that 
they  were  not  in  need  of  any  assistance,  for  "experi- 
ment, study  and  reflection"  were  their  sole  occupa- 
tions, and  that  these  could  be  performed  only  by 
themselves.  They  regretted  that  they  knew  of  no 
position  to  which  they  could  direct  her  attention, 
although  they  had  "heard  that  female  assistance 
had  been  employed  in  the  apothecary  store."  They 
regretted  the  more  that  they  could  render  her  no 
aid  as  they  desired  "to  see  proper  means  of  liveli- 
hood thrown  open  to  females." 

The  sympathetic  spirit  of  this  reply  led  her  to 
write  again,  urging  her  case.     Their  second  letter 


86  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

stated  that  they  would  take  pupils  only  upon  the 
payment  of  $500  a  year,  which  of  course,  in  her 
self-dependent  position,  put  the  thought  of  study 
with  them  beyond  the  realm  of  possibility.  Like 
Merrick  and  Gray,  they  advised  her  to  try  to  enter 
a  scientific  school. 

In  the  time  that  elapsed  between  writing  to  the 
Institute  and  receiving  a  reply,  she  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing to  a  friend:  "I  have  quite  made  up  my 
mind  to  try  Chemistry  for  a  life  study  and  have 
been  trying  to  find  a  suitable  opportunity  to  attempt 
it.  I've  been  busy  with  this  and  hoped  to  have 
something  to  report,  but  everything  seems  to  stop 
short  at  some  blank  wall  and  I  suppose  I'm  like 
Baalam  and  don't  see  the  angel  of  the  Lord  in  the 
way.  ...  I  trust  something  will  come  to  pass  soon 
for  I  fear  I  shall  get  impatient. 

"I've  been  making  some  lovely  wax  flowers  for  a 
lady  to  give  as  a  wedding  present  and  some  for  our 
Fair,  ajso  sewing  for  the  Fair  and  helping  make 
fancy  things,  doing  a  little  in  that  way,  reading 
some  and  cooking,  Thanksgiving,  etc.,  going  to 
lectures,  etc.,  etc.  I've  been  full  of  business  and 
it  is  well,  else  I  should  go  wild  over  all  the  hindrances 
I  find  in  my  path." 

Ten  years  later  she  wrote  to  a  woman  who  had 
consulted  her  about  preparation  for  a  definite  line 
of  work : 

"I  know  just  how  you  feel;  you  want  your  own 


STUDENT  OF  CHEMISTRY  87 

work  to  do  in  the  world.  You  want  to  feel  that  just 
a  little  is  your  own.  Is  not  that  it?  Well,  I  went 
through  a  good  many  years  of  that.  After  I  felt 
the  power  to  do  I  could  not  sit  and  fold  my  hands. 
I  have  found  my  work  and  plenty  of  it,  but  it  is  not 
what  I  had  planned  it  to  be  and  it  did  not  come  to 
me  until  I  was  nearly  thirty  years  old." 

On  the  twenty-eighth  anniversary  of  her  birth, 
December  3,  1870,  the  Faculty  of  the  Institute  of 
Technology  formally  received  her  application  for 
admission,  which  had  been  in  the  hands  of  the  secre- 
tary, Dr.  Samuel  Kneeland,  up  to  that  date.  It 
voted,  however,  "to  postpone  the  question  of  the 
admission  of  female  students  until  the  next  meet- 
ing." On  December  10,  "the  question  of  the  admis- 
sion of  Miss  Swallow  was  resumed  and  after  some 
discussion  it  was  voted  that  the  Faculty  recommend 
to  the  Corporation  the  admission  of  Miss  Swallow 
as  a  special  student  in  Chemistry."  That  same  day, 
however,  it  was  "Resolved  That  the  Faculty  are  of 
the  opinion  that  the  admission  of  women  as  special 
students  is  as  yet  in  the  nature  of  an  experiment, 
that  each  application  should  be  acted  on  upon  its 
own  merits,  and  that  no  general  action  or  change 
of  the  former  policy  of  the  Institute  is  at  present 
expedient." 

It  was  on  December  14  that  President  Runkle, 
who  had  previously  said  to  her  that  he  considered 
the  introduction  of  ladies  to  the  Institute  "a  con- 


88  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

summation   devoutly    to   be   wished,"   wrote    her   as 
follows : 

"Dear  Miss  Swallow:  The  Secretary  of  the  Insti- 
tute, Dr.  Kneeland,  will  notify  you  of  the  action  of 
the  corporation  in  your  case  at  a  meeting  held  this 
day.  I  congratulate  you  and  every  earnest  woman 
upon  the  result.  Can  you  come  to  Boston  before 
many  days  and  see  me?  I  will  say  now  that  you 
shall  have  any  and  all  advantages  which  the  Insti- 
tute has  to  offer  without  charge  of  any  kind.  I 
have  the  pleasure  of  knowing  both  Miss  Mitchell 
and  Mr.  Farrar  of  Vassar.  Hoping  soon  to  have 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  you,  I  am 
Faithfully  yours, 

J.    D.    RlJNKLE, 

President  of  the  Institute." 

So  it  came  about  that  the  answer  to  her  question, 
"Are  women  admitted?"  was  not  "They  are,"  but 
"  You  are."  To  the  clause  in  President  Runkle's 
letter,  "without  charge  of  any  kind,"  Miss  Swallow 
afterwards  referred,  saying:  "I  thought  it  was  out 
of  the  goodness  of  his  heart  because  I  was  a  poor 
girl  with  my  way  to  make  that  he  remitted  the  fee, 
but  I  learned  later  it  was  because  he  could  say  I 
was  not  a  student,  should  any  of  the  trustees  or 
students  make  a  fuss  about  my  presence.  Had 
I  realized  upon  what  basis  I  was  taken,  I  would  not 
have  gone."  Fortunately  she  did  not  know. 


ROGERS    BUILDING 

The  only  Institute  Building  in  1S7C 


WALKER    BUILDING 

Where  for  years  Mrs.  Richards  had  her  laboratory 

MASSACHUSETTS  INSTITUTE  OF  TECHNOLOGY 


STUDENT  OF  CHEMISTRY  89 

Just  before  she  received  word  of  the  success  of 
her  plan,  she  had  engaged  to  work  in  a  store  for 
the  two  weeks  preceding  Christmas.  This  delayed 
her  entrance  to  the  Institute  a  short  time,  but  it 
gave  her  something  quite  as  valuable  to  her  as  two 
weeks  of  study — an  understanding  of  what  the 
Christmas  rush  means  to  the  shopgirl.  Christmas 
Eve  she  worked  until  half-past  ten  without  supper. 

On  Christmas  she  wrote  to  a  friend:  "I  would 
give  very  much  to  have  an  hour's  talk  with  you  on 
the  prospect  the  future  is  opening  to  me.  I  want 
your  opinion  on  it  and  the  support  of  your  interest 
in  what  lies  before  me.  Very  mysteriously  God  leads 
us,  doesn't  he?  He  grants  us  our  wishes,  often  tho  in 
different  ways  from  what  we  expect.  You  will  know 
that  one  of  my  delights  is  to  do  something  that  no 
one  else  ever  did.  I  have  the  chance  of  doing  what 
no  woman  ever  did  and  the  glimpse  I  get  of  what 
is  held  out  to  me  makes  me  sober  and  thoughtful, 
not  that  I  want  to  turn  back  but  I  fear  that  I  can't 
carry  steadily  all  the  load  I've  taken  and  feel  in- 
clined to  go  slowly  at  first,  not  with  my  usual  dash. 
To  be  the  first  woman  to  enter  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology,  and  so  far  as  I  know,  any 
scientific  school,  and  to  do  it  by  myself  alone,  un- 
aided, to  be  welcomed  most  cordially,  is  this  not 
honor  enough  for  the  first  six  months  of  post- 
collegiate  life?" 

Shortly   after   the   holidays   she  went   to   Boston 


90  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

and  engaged  a  room  at  523  Columbus  Avenue.  This 
was  a  boarding  house  kept  by  Mrs.  Blodgett,  the 
mother  of  Isa  Blodgett,  her  most  intimate  friend 
at  Westford  Academy.  She  could  not,  however, 
afford  to  pay  for  board,  and  so  she  and  her 
friend  Helen  Morse,  who  roomed  with  her,  boarded 
'  themselves. 

Established  in  Boston,  she  entered  upon  the 
same  program  of  work  and  study  which  she  had 
followed  all  her  life.  As  early  as  January  26,  she 
had  assumed  temporary  charge  of  the  office  of  a 
friend  in  his  absence  from  the  city,  and  was  "en- 
joying being  in  the  office  and  the  Institute  also." 
Shortly  afterwards  she  took  full  charge  of  the 
boarding  house  in  which  she  was  living,  during 
the  absence  of  Mrs.  Blodgett,  whose  daughter  was 
critically  ill.  She  kept  peace  in  the  kitchen, 
directed  the  servants,  planned  the  meals,  and  took 
care  that  the  routine  of  the  house  should  not  be 
interrupted.  "I  got  up  at  half  past  five  this  morn- 
ing," she  wrote  at  this  time,  "to  get  Mr.  Blodgett 
his  breakfast  because  he  had  to  get  away  on  the 
early  train  and  I  was  afraid  the  girls  would  for- 
get." In  the  meantime  she  was  carrying  on  her 
work  at  the  Institute,  and  was  supporting  herself 
by  tutoring. 

Having  been  admitted  to  the  Institute  as  a  special 
privilege,  she  set  about  making  herself  indispen- 
sable. "I  hope  in  a  quiet  way,"  she  wrote  on 


STUDENT  OF  CHEMISTRY  91 

February  11,  1871,  "I  am  winning  a  way  which 
others  will  keep  open.  Perhaps  the  fact  that  I  am 
not  a  Radical  or  a  believer  in  the  all  powerful 
ballot  for  women  to  right  her  wrongs  and  that  I  do 
not  scorn  womanly  duties,  but  claim  it  as  a  privi- 
lege to  clean  up  and  sort  of  supervise  the  room  and 
sew  things,  etc.,  is  winning  me  stronger  allies  than 
anything  else.  Even  Prof.  A.  accords  me  his  sanc- 
tion when  I  sew  his  papers  or  tie  up  a  sore  finger 
or  dust  the  table,  etc.  Last  night  Prof.  B.  found 
me  useful  to  mend  his  suspenders  which  had  come 
to  grief,  much  to  the  "amusement  of  young  Mr.  C. 
I  try  to  keep  all  sorts  of  such  things  as  needles, 
thread,  pins,  scissors,  etc.,  round  and  they  are 
getting  to  come  to  me  for  everything  they  want 
and  they  almost  always  find  it  and  as  Prof.  — 
said  the  other  day  —  "When  we  are  in  doubt 
about  anything  we  always  go  to  Miss  Swallow." 
They  leave  messages  with  me  and  come  to  expect 
me  to  know  where  everything  and  everybody  is — 
so  you  see  I  am  usefiil  in  a  decidedly  general 
way — so  they  can't  say  study  spoils  me  for  any- 
thing else.  I  think  I  am  making  as  good  progress 
as  anyone  in  my  study  too — They  say  I  am  going 
ahead  because  Prof.  Ordway  trusts  me  to  do  his 
work  for  him  which  he  never  did  anybody  else — 
the  dear  good  man — I  am  only  too  happy  to  do 
anything  for  him."  (Professor  Ordway  had  a  large 
practice  as  consulting  expert  in  technical  chemistry.) 


92  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

"They  are  even  daring  to  joke  a  little.  The 
other  day  I  found  a  letter  on  my  desk  there  with 
the  A.B.  crossed  out  and  A.O.M.  written.  What 
do  you  suppose  they  meant?  I  couldn't  get  it  from 
them.  Prof.  Ordway  whom  I  privately  consulted 
said  it  must  be  Artium  Omnium  Magistra.  I  inter- 
preted it  old  maid." 

Mrs.  Stinson,  who  became  her  faithful  friend  and 
ally,  and  who  was  "happy  if  she  could  just  hear 
her  voice,"  told  many  stories  of  her  helpfulness 
during  these  early  days.  One  of  these  stories  would 
have  shocked  Mrs.  Richards  herself  in  later  days 
when  she  was  advocating  scientific  methods  of  clean- 
ing, but  it  shows  how  quick  she  was  to  see  and  to 
meet  a  need.  One  day  a  professor  of  Chemistry 
was  preparing  for  a  lecture  in  a  room  which  had 
not  been  swept  or  made  ready  for  the  class.  Shortly 
before  the  time  of  the  lecture  the  janitor  entered, 
but  detecting  an  odor  like  that  of  rotten  eggs,  due 
to  the  escape  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas,  he 
fled  precipitately  and  refused  to  return.  What  was 
to  be  done?  The  class  would  be  in  in  a  few  moments 
and  the  room  was  still  unswept.  Recognizing  the 
emergency,  Miss  Swallow  seized  a  broom,  and  start- 
ing at  one  end  of  the  room  while  Mrs.  Stinson 
started  at  the  other,  they  had  it  swept  before  the 
class  arrived. 

To  understand  the  difficulties  which  Ellen  Swal- 
low overcame  during  that  first  year  in  order  to  hold 


STUDENT  OF  CHEMISTRY  93 

to  the  course  she  had  laid  out  for  herself,  one  must 
know  something  of  her  home  life.  Early  in  March 
her  father  was  struck  by  an  engine  in  the  Union 
Station  at  Worcester  and  so  badly  injured  that  he 
died  four  days  later.  She  wrote  on  April  30  to 
Mrs.  Hughes:  ...  "I  was  sick  about  the  first 
of  March  and  came  up  here  for  a  few  days.  While 
here,  just  able  to  lie  round  on  the  sofa,  word  was 
brought  to  us  one  morning  that  father  who  had  left 
home  an  hour  before  was  being  brought  home,  his 
right  arm  crushed  by  the  cars. 

"Oh,  Flora,  imagine  if  you  can  the  horrible 
scene — the  amputation,  the  terrible  agony  he  suf- 
fered 'in  the  arm  that  is  gone,'  the  anxious  watch- 
ing and  care  which  all  came  upon  me,  as  he  looked 
to  no  one  else,  trusted  all  in  my  hands,  night  and 
day  for  four  days,  a  few  hours'  delirium,  then  sleep, 
and  a  glorious  awaking  in  Heaven. 

"I  had  strength  to  go  thro  all,  calm,  cheerful, 
without  a  tear,  but  it  almost  took  reason,  when 
the  strain  was  removed,  and  I've  not  recovered 
yet.  I  sometimes  fear  I  shall  give  up  before  the 
spring  is  thro.  So  many  things  I  have  to  do 
which  almost  kill  me,  business  which  calls  him  up 
to  me,  seeing  people  who  want  to  talk  of  him,  and 
yet  I  will  not  allow  myself  to  shirk.  I  could  not 
leave  mother  alone  tho  it  is  torture  for  me  to  be 
here  and  so  I  go  back  and  forth  to  Boston  every 
day.  I  have  tried  thro  April  and  shall  one  month 


94  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

more — then  the  Institute  closes  and  I  hope  to  go 
back  to  Boston  in  September  to  live.  Mother  will 
still  live  here.  I  am  succeeding  quite  well  in  my 
work  and  the  future  looks  well.  What  special 
mission  is  God  preparing  me  for?  Cutting  off  all 
earthly  ties  and  isolating  me  as  it  were." 

A  few  months  later  she  wrote  to  a  friend  who 
was  in  trouble :  "  .  .  .  When  you  feel  an  indica- 
tion of  a  certain  morbid  feeling  resolutely  set 
your  mind  in  another  direction,  and  don't  give 
up  easily.  Let  the  mind  know  there  is  a  will 
power  to  control  it  in  a  measure.  This  is  pos- 
sible. I  never  could  have  lived  thro  these  sad 
months  if  I  had  for  an  instant  allowed  my  mind 
to  dwell  on  the  terrible  scenes  of  my  father's  death. 
I  turn  my  attention  by  something  and  so  success- 
fully that  I've  not  dreamed  of  him  as  crushed  or 
dead  but  once  and  that  was  a  few  nights  ago  after 
sitting  here  mending  a  dress  all  the  evening  and 
thinking  of  things  at  home.  Now  when  the  thought 
comes  to  my  mind  I  shut  the  doer  tight  and  run 
to  the  other  side  and  take  a  book  or  pencil  or 
plan  something  for  the  future  and  so  turn  the 
attention  which  is  a  very  child  to  please — so 
easily  is  it  diverted." 

Thus  during  the  last  few  months  of  that  first 
year  of  her  work  at  the  Institute  she  was  sup- 
porting herself,  was  settling  her  father's  estate, 
and  was  making  daily  a  trip  to  Boston  and  back, 


STUDENT  OF  CHEMISTRY  95 

which  even  in  these  days  of  rapid  transit  takes 
more  than  an  hour  each  way.  And  yet,  in  spite 
of  the  shock,  the  sorrow,  the  worry,  and  the 
weariness,  she  held  her  place  in  the  Institute, 
keeping  the  door  open  for  other  women. 


CHAPTER    VI 

IN  THE   LABORATORY 

THE  next  four  years,  from  1871  to  1875,  were 
spent  by  Miss  Swallow  at  the  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy, first  as  student,  then  as  student  assistant,  and 
finally  as  assistant  in  the  chemical  laboratories.  If 
these  years  were  to  be  considered  only  as  they  of- 
fered opportunity  for  self-expression,  the  record 
might  be  made  up  from  her  letters,  for  she  repeat- 
edly wrote  of  pleasure  in  her  work,  of  satisfaction 
that  she  was  able  to  "do  real  things  of  value  to 
people,"  and  of  pride  that  "her  opinion  was  getting 
to  be  of  consequence  on  chemical  analysis."  But 
during  this  period,  as  at  previous  times  in  her  life, 
preparation  for  work  and  work  itself  overlapped, 
and  her  student  labors  gradually  took  the  form 
of  professional  services  in  sanitary  chemistry.  It 
seems  best,  therefore,  to  connect  these  years  with 
that  part  of  her  subsequent  life  which  was  given 
to  systematic  scientific  work,  even  though  this  may 
somewhat  disturb  the  sequence  of  the  narrative. 
Such  a  treatment  has  another  advantage  also,  for 
it  is  only  against  the  background  of  her  scientific 
labors  that  her  other  varied  and  ever-changing 
activities  can  be  seen  in  their  true  proportions. 

96 


IN  THE  LABORATORY  97 

Mrs.  Richards's  public  activities,  numerous  as  they 
were,  fall  rather  naturally  into  two  groups,  those 
of  leadership  and  those  of  expert  service  in  sanitary 
science.  To  compare  these  two  kinds  of  work,  and 
to  try  to  say  of  one  or  of  the  other  that  it  was  her 
greater  contribution  to  the  life  of  her  times,  would 
be  idle;  and  to  seem  to  be  making  such  comparison, 
or  to  be  laying  undue  emphasis  upon  one  or  the 
other,  would  be  unfortunate.  Yet  in  the  written 
record  it  is  almost  inevitable  that  the  work  which 
she  did  as  leader  should  loom  larger  and  more 
prominent  than  the  other.  For  so  multiform  were 
the  activities  of  this  kind,  so  wide  the  territory  over 
which  they  carried  her,  and  so  many  the  people  with 
whom  they  brought  her  in  contact,  that  they  must 
necessarily  form  a  large  part  of  any  written  record 
of  her  life.  It  is  well,  therefore,  to  see  them  against 
the  background  of  that  patient  work  which  she  did 
day  after  day  and  year  after  year,  in  the  quiet  of 
her  laboratory  and  classroom.  And  all  the  more  so 
because  those  wrho  were  closest  to  her  feel  that  the 
authority  with  which  she  spoke  on  matters  of  public 
interest  and  her  very  wide  influence  were  due  to  the 
fact  that  she  had  painstakingly  made  herself  master 
of  a  certain  field,  restricted  though  it  may  be  con- 
sidered. An  eminent  chemist  who  heard  her  speak 
upon  a  platform  with  several  other  women  expressed 
this  idea  when  he  said  that  her  speech  carried  more 
weight  than  the  others  because  she  was  herself  a 


98  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Fachmann,  her  training  and  her  work  being  behind 
every  word  which  she  spoke. 

Considering  the  service  which  she  was  destined 
to  render  in  the  line  of  public  health  and  the  train- 
ing of  sanitary  chemists  and  engineers,  the  time  of 
her  entrance  into  the  Institute  was  most  opportune. 
On  April  16,  1869,  less  than  two  years  before  she 
began  her  work,  the  Massachusetts  legislature  had 
passed  an  Act  providing  for  the  establishment  of  a 
State  Board  of  Health.  This  board,  to  which 
Mrs.  Richards  gave  some  of  the  best  working  years 
of  her  life,  became  a  leader  in  the  public  health 
movement  of  America.  In  its  first  report,  its  gen- 
eral principles  of  action  were  set  forth  in  the  follow- 
ing words :  "  No  board  of  health,  if  it  rightly  perform 
its  duty,  can  separate  the  physical  from  the  moral 
and  intellectual  natures  of  man.  These  three  quali- 
ties of  man  are  really  indissoluble,  and  mutually  act 
and  react  upon  each  other.  Any  influence  exerted 
to  the  injury  of  one,  inevitably,  though  perhaps 
very  indirectly,  injures  another.  As  in  the  physi- 
cal world  there  is  a  correlation  of  forces,  so  that 
no  force  is  ever  lost  but  only  interchanged  with 
another,  so  do  these  various  powers  and  qualities 
of  man  act  upon  each  other,  and  act  and  are  acted 
on  by  the  physical  forces  of  nature  that  surround 
him."  We  may  well  believe  that  this  statement  and 
the  plea  which  follows  for  an  ethical  purpose  in  pub- 
lic health  work  met  a  responsive  chord  in  the  soul 


IN  THE  LABORATORY  99 

of  the  woman  who  during  her  college  life  had  said, 
"I  must  keep  the  body  in  good  condition  to  do  the 
bidding  of  the  spirit." 

Very  soon  after  the  organization  of  the  State 
Board,  the  question  of  the  pollution  of  streams  by 
industrial  establishments  and  by  the  sewage  of  towns 
was  brought  to  its  attention,  and  it  decided  to  in- 
vestigate the  matter,  selecting  Professor  William  R. 
Nichols,  of  the  Institute  of  Technology,  to  make 
the  chemical  analyses.  Water  analysis  being  at  that 
time  a  new  branch  of  chemistry,  Professor  Nichols 
wisely  decided  to  begin  by  a  very  thorough  exami- 
nation of  the  waters  of  a  limited  district,  and  chose 
Mystic  Pond  for  this  intensive  study.  He  began 
his  work  in  April,  1870,  and  made  his  report  in 
September  of  the  same  vear.  As  a  result  of  the 
conditions  shown,  the  legislature  issued  an  order  in 
April,  1872,  instructing  the  Board  of  Health  to 
make  an  extensive  inquiry  into  matters  connected 
with  sewerage  and  water  supply.  In  doing  this  it 
followed  the  example  of  England,  whose  Rivers  Pollu- 
tion Commission  had  made  its  first  report  in  1870. 
In  undertaking  this  larger  task,  the  Board  again 
intrusted  the  chemical  work  to  Professor  Nichols, 
and  this  time  he  chose  Miss  Swallow  as  his  assistant. 
"He  thus  availed  himself,"  to  use  Miss  Swallow's 
own  words,  "of  the  technical  skill  of  hand  gained  in 
using  instruments  of  precision  under  the  tutelage 
of  Maria  Mitchell."  This  was  doubtless  the  work  to 


100  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

which  she  referred  in  a  letter  dated  August  14, 1872: 
"Now  a  new  work  has  been  put  into  my  hands  which 
will  tell,  and  that  by  a  Professor  who  does  not  believe 
in  women's  education."  In  November  of  the  same 
year  she  wrote:  "The  record  since  I  wrote  might 
almost  be  summed  up  in  one  word  'Work.'  I  have 
made  about  100  water  analyses  and  that  is  only  part 
of  my  daily  duties.  I  have  been  studying  with  the 
classes  since  October  9th.  I  have  to  prepare  my 
lessons  evenings." 

While  this  work  was  going  on,  Professor  Nichols 
was  making  frequent  trips  to  England  and  to  the 
Continent  in  order  to  learn  what  was  being  done 
abroad,  and  during  his  absence  was  directing  the 
work  of  the  laboratory  by  correspondence.  In  writ- 
ing of  him  after  his  death,  Mrs.  Richards  said: 
"He  accepted  nothing  short  of  absolute  accuracy, 
as  if  under  oath.  Each  new  assistant  was  put 
through  a  vigorous  process  of  testing  as  to  the 
accuracy  of  work  no  matter  at  what  cost  of  time 
and  money."  Miss  Swallow,  as  Professor  Nichols's 
pupil  and  assistant,  therefore  had  the  advantage 
not  only  of  being  in  touch  with  some  of  the  most 
advanced  work  in  sanitation  which  was  being  done 
in  the  world,  but  also  of  having  a  most  rigorous 
training  for  the  part  which  she  was  to  take  in  later 
work.  In  his  report  made  to  the  Board  in  1874, 
Professor  Nichols  said:  "Most  of  the  analytical 
work  has  been  performed  by  Miss  Ellen  H.  Swallow, 


IN  THE  LABORATORY  101 

A.M.,  under  my  direction.  I  take  pleasure  in  ac- 
knowledging my  indebtedness  to  her  valuable  assist- 
ance and  expressing  my  confidence  in  the  accuracy 
of  the  results  obtained."' 

Her  student  life  at  the  Institute,  through  good 
fortune  as  to  the  time  when  it  began  and  the  men 
with  whom  it  brought  her  in  contact,  led  toward 
what  was  probably  the  greatest  direct  contribution 
of  her  life  to  public  health — her  part  in  the  ex- 
tensive sanitary  survey  of  the  waters  of  the  state, 
which  began  in  1887.  This  work  was  great  in  its 
conception  and  great  in  its  consequences.  The 
survey  itself  lasted  for  nearly  two  years,  and  con- 
sisted in  monthly  analyses  of  samples  from  all  parts 
of  the  state,  representing  the  water  supply  of  eighty- 
two  per  cent,  of  the  population. 

Before  this  survey  began,  a  separate  laboratory 
for  sanitary  chemistry  had  been  established  at  the 
Institute  of  Technology,  the  first  of  its  kind  in  the 
world.  This  laboratory,  which  was  opened  in  1884, 
was  in  charge  of  Professor  Nichols,  with  Mrs.  Rich-  > 
ards  as  an  assistant.  Professor  Nichols  died  in 
1886  and  Dr.  Thomas  M.  Drown  was  appointed  his 
successor.  Dr.  Drown  planned  the  great  survey 
and  placed  Mrs.  Richards  in  charge  of  the  labora- 
tory and  of  the  corps  of  assistant  chemists.  After 
the  completion  of  the  investigation  many  prob- 
lems were  left  to  be  solved,  and  Dr.  Drown  and 
Mrs.  Richards  remained  in  charge  of  the  water 


102  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

laboratory  of  the  state  until  it  was  transferred  to 
the  State  House  in  1897. 

In  a  work  of  this  magnitude,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  success  depended  very  largely  upon  system  and 
regularity  in  the  management  of  the  laboratory. 
The  samples  were  collected  and  transported  at  large 
expense.  Upon  their  arrival  at  the  laboratory  it 
was  necessary  to  examine  them  within  a  few  hours 
or  they  became  useless.  If  a  sample  was  spoiled  by 
delay  it  was  not  replaced,  and  in  order  that  there 
might  be  no  gaps  in  the  record,  Mrs.  Richards 
worked  not  only  all  day,  but  frequently  late  into  the 
night,  and  on  Sundays  and  holidays.  "I  have  been 
under  water  since  June  1  of  last  year,"  she  wrote 
in  March,  1888,  to  a  friend,  "and  I  suppose  it  will 
be  the  same  another  year.  We  are  testing  all  the 
public  supplies  once  a  month  and  we  are  up  to  2,500 
samples  already.  I  am  on  constant  duty  from 
8  o'clock  to  5.30  or  6  every  day,  Saturday  included/' 

In  a  letter  written  in  1904,  she  referred  to  the 
strain  of  this  work,  saying:  "I  worked  fourteen 
hours  a  day  on  five  and  sometimes  seven  days  of 
the  week.  If  the  day  was  too  hot  for  analyzing 
water  the  work  was  done  at  night."  In  the  course 
of  this  investigation  more  than  forty  thousand 
samples  of  water  were  analyzed,  either  wholly  or 
in  part  by  her.  During  all  this  time  laboratory  and 
experimental  methods  were  being  perfected  and  new 
forms  of  apparatus  devised.  In  the  splendid  co- 


IN  THE  LABORATORY  103 

operation  which  brought  the  survey  to  a  successful 
issue,  there  was  little  thought  of  where  the  credit  for 
specific  parts  of  the  work  lay,  but  it  is  generally 
recognized  that,  as  Dr.  Drowrn  said  in  his  report  to 
the  Board,  "the  accuracy  of  the  work  and  the  no  less 
important  accuracy  of  the  records  were  mainly  due 
to  Mrs.  Richards's  great  zeal  and  vigilance." 

The  very  large  number  of  analyses,  showing  as 
they  did  the  condition  of  the  water  of  all  parts 
of  the  state  at  all  times  of  the  year,  were  in  them- 
selves a  valuable  record,  and  made  possible  many 
important  generalizations.  One  of  these  found  ex- 
pression in  what  is  known  as  the  Normal  Chlorine 
Map,  which  has  become  a  model  wherever  sanitary 
surveys  are  being  made.  Upon  this  map  all  the 
places  whose  natural  unpolluted  waters  contain  the 
same  amount  of  chlorine  were  connected  by  lines 
very  much  after  the  fashion  in  which  places  with 
the  same  barometric  pressure  are  connected  in  a 
weather  map.  To  these  lines  the  name  of  isochlors 
was  given.  When  the  map  was  completed,  it  was 
discovered  that  the  isochlors  ran  in  a  general  way 
parallel  to  the  line  of  the  seashore,  and  that  the 
distances  between  them  and  the  shore  corresponded 
very  closely  with  differences  in  the  amount  of  normal 
chlorine  present,  thus  revealing  the  fact  that  for  all 
places  the  same  distance  from  the  sea  the  chlorine 
in  the  natural  waters  might  be  considered  the  same. 
By  means  of  this  map,  it  is  possible  with  very  little 


104  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

trouble  to  tell  of  a  given  place  in  Massachusetts 
(except  of  places  on  Cape  Cod,  which  is  washed  on 
all  sides  by  the  sea)  how  much  of  the  chlorine  found 
in  its  waters  is  due  to  its  nearness  to  the  sea,  and 
how  much  is  due  to  pollution.  This  suggested  to 
other  states  and  countries  that  there  might  be  a  like 
uniformity  in  the  chlorine  content  of  their  waters, 
and  consequently  served  as  a  valuable  starting  point 
for  the  examination  of  wraters  in  many  parts  of  the 
world. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  work  of  general  water 
analysis  for  the  state,  so  in  the  case  of  the  making 
of  the  chlorine  map,  it  was  a  great  piece  of  work 
to  which  a  large  number  of  faithful  workers  con- 
tributed. Whether  the  important  deduction  from 
the  large  number  of  figures  at  hand  first  occurred 
to  Mrs.  Richards  or  to  some  one  else,  no  one  seems 
to  know,  but  one  thing  may  be  said,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  vast  number  of  reliable  figures  which 
had  been  secured  through  her  generalship  and  her 
management  of  the  laboratory,  the  chlorine  map 
would  never  have  been  made. 

/  In  1873  Miss  Swallow  received  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Science  (in  Chemistry)  from  the  Insti- 
tute of  Technology,  becoming  its  first  woman  grad- 
uate. The  same  year  she  received  the  Master's 
degree  from  Vassar  upon  the  presentation  of  a 
thesis  and  after  a  long  and  searching  examination. 
At  this  time  she  hoped  to  go  on  with  investigational 


IN  THE  LABORATORY  105 

\ 

work  and  to  secure  a  Doctor's  degree.  But  while 
there  were  many  to  make  use  of  her  skill  as  an 
analyst,  there  were  few  to  realize  what  the  oppor- 
tunity to  do  original  work  would  mean  to  her,  and 
there  were  few  to  encourage  her  and  help  her  to 
surmount  the  difficulties  which  at  that  time  lay  in 
the  way  of  a  woman's  securing  such  an  honor. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  times  were  against 
her,  she  traveled  far  enough  in  independent  work  to 
look  over   into   the  promised  land  that   only  those 
may  enter  who  make  contributions  to  knowledge.    In 
1872  she  came  into  possession  of  a  small  piece  of  a   i 
rare  mineral,  samarskite,  which  others  had  analyzed    \ 
without  discovering  anything  unusual  about  it.    After 
analyzing  it  with  great  care,  she  reported  in  a  paper 
published  by  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History     1 
that  there  was  an  insoluble  residue  which  could  not 
be  accounted  for.    To  those  who  were  working  with 
her  in  the  laboratory  she  repeatedly  said  that  she 
believed  it  to  contain  elements  not  then  known.    A 
few   years   later   two   new   elements,    samarium    and 
gadolinium,  were  isolated  from  this  mineral. 

After  her  first  experience  as  water  analyst  under 
Professor  Nichols,  Miss  Swallow  entered  upon  a  X 
large  private  practice  in  sanitary  chemistry,  includ- 
ing the  examination  not  only  of  water,  but  also  of 
air  and  of  food,  and  the  testing  of  wall  papers  and 
fabrics  for  arsenic.  In  1878  and  1879  she  examined 
a  large  number  of  staple  groceries  for  the  state, 


106  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

the  results  of  her  investigation  being  published  in  the 
first  annual  report  of  the  Board  of  Health,  Lunacy 
and  Charity,  which  had  succeeded  the  earlier  Board 
of  Health. 

Her  work  as  an  expert  in  sanitary  chemistry 
constituted  a  most  important  and  at  the  same  time 
a  unique  form  of  public  service,  even  when  it  was 
done  for  fees.  But  frequently  she  chose  to  give 
her  expert  knowledge  without  remuneration.  For 
example,  a  friend  might  be  choosing  a  site  for  a 
country  home  or  a  camp  or  a  summer  cottage. 
Mrs.  Richards's  contribution,  or  shall  we  say  her 
part  of  the  housewarming,  would  almost  invariably 
be  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  water  supply. 
When  we  consider  how  many  people  fall  victims 
to  typhoid  fever  during  their  summer  outings,  we 
realize  how  valuable  this  contribution  was.  Or  the 
question  of  the  water  supply  for  a  school  would 
arise.  Mrs.  Richards  was  always  ready  to  offer  her 
services  without  cost,  if  she  felt  that  the  enterprise 
was  in  a  struggling  financial  condition  or  if  she 
had  a  personal  interest  in  it.  As  alumna  trustee  of 
Vassar  she  performed  invaluable  services  in  testing 
the  drinking  water  of  the  college,  in  order  to  deter- 
mine the  efficiency  of  a  sewage  disposal  plant  which 
had  been  installed.  The  half  of  what  she  did  to  pro- 
tect human  life  from  the  danger  of  impure  waters 
will  never  be  known  by  any  one  person,  and  for  that 
reason  its  complete  story  can  never  be  written. 


IN  THE  LABORATORY  107 

During  the  time  that  Miss  Swallow  was  study- 
ing at  the  Institute,  she  was  assistant  not  only  to 
Professor  Nichols,  but  also  to  Professor  Ordway, 
whose  specialty  was  industrial  chemistry  and  who 
carried  on  a  large  amount  of  work  as  consulting 
expert  for  various  manufacturing  establishments.  It 
was  through  her  association  with  him  that  she  was 
appointed,  in  1884,  chemist  for  the  Manufacturers' 
Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Company.  In  this  capacity 
she  did  much  valuable  work  bearing  upon  the  danger 
from  spontaneous  combustion  of  various  oils  in  com- 
mercial use.  This  was  pioneer  work,  and  it  is  said 
that  in  the  course  of  it  Mrs.  Richards  often  prophe- 
sied that  the  time  would  come  when  every  material 
used  in  building  would  be  thoroughly  tested.  The 
great  underwriters'  laboratories  of  today  show  that 
she  had  true  prophetic  vision. 

It  was  in  the  course  of  her  work  on  oils  that  she 
became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson,  econ- 
omist and  philanthropist,  who  invented  the  Aladdin 
Oven  and  with  whom  she  later  worked  out  many 
problems  in  the  application  of  heat  to  food  materials 
under  a  grant  from  the  Elizabeth  Thompson  Fund. 
For  him,  too,  she  evolved  several  methods  of  deter- 
mining the  impurities  in  lubricating  oils,  with  special 
reference  to  cottonseed  oil,  and  devised  what  was 
known  as  the  "evaporation  test"  for  non-lubricating 
volatile  matters.  She  also  made  an  investigation  of 
the  possibilities  of  recovering  wool  grease  which 


108  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

attracted  world-wide  attention,  and  a  study  of  the 
composition  of  cottonseed  hulls  which  proved  of 
great  commercial  value.  In  1877  she  devised  a  new 
method  for  determining  the  amount  of  nickel  in  vari- 
ous ores,  and  as  a  result  she  became  an  authority  on 
the  subject  and  frequently  acted  as  referee  on  dis- 
puted points. 

It  was  her  special  joy  to  be  chosen  to  help  those 
in  the  business  world  whose  faces  she  believed  to  be 
turned  toward  a  future  of  better  living*  conditions. 
She  was  keenly  in  sympathy  with  certain  progressive 
commercial  enterprises  started  by  college  women  in 
later  years,  such  as  the  Sunshine  Laundry  of  Brook- 
line  and  the  Laboratory  Kitchen  of  Boston.  Shortly 
before  her  death,  Mrs.  Richards  gave  a  course  of 
lectures  to  the  employees  of  the  Laboratory  Kitchen 
upon  the  general  subject  of  the  relation  of  personal 
cleanliness  to  safe  food. 

Not  the  least  important  of  Mrs.  Richards's  chem- 
ical work  was  that  which  she  did  in  connection  with 
Professor  Richards's  researches.  She  spent  the  sum- 
mers of  1881  and  1882  with  him  in  the  copper  regions 
of  Northern  Michigan,  where  he  was  making  investi- 
gations into  methods  of  concentrating  and  smelting 
copper.  During  these  summers  she  acted  as  his 
chemist,  and  Professor  Richards  says  that  her  ex- 
treme accuracy  and  wonderful  promptness  contrib- 
uted largely  to  the  value  of  the  experiments. 

In  1876  she  became  instructor  in  the  Woman's 


IN  THE  LABORATORY  109 

Laboratory    connected    with    the    Institute,    whose 
history  will  be  told  in  a  later  chapter.     In   1884 
she  was  appointed  Instructor  in  Sanitary  Chemistry 
in    the    Institute    of    Technology    itself,    a   position 
which  she  filled  until  the  time  of  her  death.     During 
the  twenty-seven  years  in  which  she  was  in  charge    . 
of  this  laboratory,  she  trained  a  large  number  of    A 
young  men,  who  went  out  to  every  part  of  the  United 
States  and  to  many  foreign  countries  to  take  charge 
of   similar  laboratories.    It  was   for  her   classes   inl 
Sanitary  Chemistry  that  she  wrote  "Air,  Water  and 
Foody"  with  the  cooperation  of  Assistant  Professor 
A.  G.  Woodman. 

In  1890  there  was  inaugurated  at  the  Institute 
of  Technology  the  first  systematic  and  comprehen- 
sive course  in  Sanitary  Engineering  to  be  established 
in  any  seat  of  learning  in  the  world.  Much  of  the 
prestige  of  this  course  is  undoubtedly  due  directly 
to  Mrs.  Richards's  labors,  wise  advice,  and  coopera- 
tion. In  the  training  of  the  engineers,  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards, who,  as  one  of  her  associates  has  said,  would 
probably  have  been  an  engineer  herself  if.  she  had 
been  a  man,  always  took  a  very  prominent  part  and 
a  special  pride  and  joy.  Her  particular  field  of  in- 
struction was  in  sanitary  water  and  sewage  analysis 
and  their  interpretation,  and  in  air  analysis,  which 
was  of  peculiar  value  to  engineering  students  spe- 
cializing in  ventilating  work. 

The  laboratory  of  Sanitary  Chemistry  has  often 


110  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

been  called  unique  because  of  the  exceptional  com- 
pleteness with  which  it  was  equipped,  but  it  was 
unique  even  more  in  this,  that  there  went  forth  from 
it  workers  not  only  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the 
technique  of  water  and  air  analysis,  but  also  inspired 
with  the  desire  to  serve  their  fellowmen.  The  facts 
of  science  were  never  to  Mrs.  Richards,  nor  to  those 
of  her  students  who  caught  her  spirit,  mere  facts; 
they  were  above  all  the  possible  vehicles  of  social 
service.  She  sent  forth  from  her  laboratory  and 
classroom  "missionaries  to  a  suffering  humanity." 


CHAPTER  VII 

IN    HER    HOME 

DURING  the  four  years  of  her  student  life  at  the 
Institute  of  Technology,  Miss  Swallow  continued  to 
live  at  523  Columbus  Avenue.  At  first  she  "boarded 
herself,"  for  economy's  sake,  but  as  her  income  from 
chemical  work  increased  she  was  able  to  pay  for 
board  as  well  as  for  her  room,  and  living  became  less 
of  a  struggle.  She  was  able  also  to  contribute  to 
her  mother's  support.  "I  have  been  fixing  up 
Mother's  house  for  her  comfort,"  we  find  in  her 
letter  of  November  17,  1872,  "as  she  has  to  do 
without  me.  I  go  up  once  in  two  or  three  weeks 
to  spend  a  night  and  that  is  all.  She  will  have  to 
pay  a  heavy  assessment  on  insurance  of  her  house 
on  account  of  this  great  fire,  and  I  may  need  to  do 
more  for  her.  I  have  been  having  $60  a  month 
besides  my  evening  classes  and  so  could  take  care 
of  myself,  but  I  can't  tell  how  the  spring  will  find 
me."  "I  have  settled  the  house  upon  her,"  she  had 
written  earlier,  "and  she  has  the  life  insurance 
besides,  so  she  will  not  want.  I  have  the  amount 
invested  in  the  stone  speculation  which  may  bring 
me  5  or  10  thousand  or  not  a  cent." 

ill 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

The  fire  to  which  she  referred  was  the  great  Boston 
fire  of  November,  1872.  This  she  described  in  a 
letter  to  a  friend  with  the  terseness  and  vividness 
which  were  characteristic  of  her  literary  expression : 
"It  was  a  strange  feeling  to  stand  out  in  the  still 
night  and  see  so  intense  and  angry  a  monster  eating 
up  our  stone  walls."  It  was  characteristic  of  her 
also  that  after  a  few  days,  having  reflected  that  the 
loss  was  exclusively  in  material  things,  she  should 
have  written:  "It  was  only  property  that  was  de- 
stroyed, and  mainly  the  kind  of  merchandise  that  we 
put  on  our  bodies,  so  we  can  do  with  less  and  not 
suffer.  We  ought  to  realize  that  as  the  Lord's 
stewards  we  ought  not  to  wear  all  that  He  gives  us 
to  spend  for  His  poor  and  needy." 

Out  of  the  money  which  her  father  had  invested 
in  artificial  stone,  and  which  she  hoped  to  recover, 
she  used  often  to  build,  not  air  castles,  but  arti- 
ficial stone  castles.  "More  than  anything  that  has 
occurred  for  a  long  time,"  she  wrote  in  Novem- 
ber, 1871,  to  a  friend  who  was  in  trouble,  "your 
letter  made  me  wish  that  my  'Frear-Artificial  Stone' 
house  was  built  (it  is  to  be  out  here  on  Hunting- 
ton  Avenue — which  at  present  is  under  several  feet 
of  Back  Bay  water)  and  in  running  order.  Then 
there  would  be  a  warm  corner  and  good  chance  for 
you,  and  no  end  of  bugs  and  minerals  close  by.  I 
would  gather  a  houseful  of  my  wayworn  friends 
and  we'd  have  such  a  gay  old  home  of  it.  But  there 


IN  HER  HOME  113 

would  be  plenty  of  work  if  I  was  round.  You  know 
me  well  enough  to  believe  that." 

But  the  stone  house  did  not  materialize,  and  the 
home  she  made  after  her  marriage  and  in  which  for 
thirty-six  years  her  wayworn  friends  found  rest  and 
refreshment  for  the  soul  as  well  as  for  the  body, 
and  which  more  than  any  other  one  place  they  asso- 
ciate with  her,  was  not  on  Huntington  Avenue,  but 
in  Jamaica  Plain,  a  beautiful  outlying  subdivision  of 
Boston. 

On  June  4,  1875,  Miss  Swallow  was  married  to 
Professor  Robert  Hallowell  Richards,  head  of  the 
department  of  mining  engineering  in  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology.  "Your  Professor/' 
she  had  called  him  in  her  letters  to  her  mother, 
following  a  pretty  way  she  had  of  putting  the 
good  things  of  life  away  from  herself  with  a  little 
mental  shove,  as  if  of  course  they  rightly  belonged 
to  some  one  more  worthy.  Miss  Swallow  and 
Professor  Richards,  differing  widely  in  tempera- 
ment, she  being  quick  to  see,  to  move,  and  to  act, 
he  slow,  deliberate,  and  judicial  in  his  mental 
attitude,  had  met  upon  the  common  ground  of  in- 
t crest  in  scientific  pursuits  and  had  fallen  in  love 
with  each  other.  "Cupid  had  appeared  among 
the  retorts  and  receivers,"  as  Miss  Swallow's 
facetious  friend,  Mr.  Smith,  expressed  it. 

Professor  Richards  was  born  on  August  26,  1844, 
in  Gardiner,  Maine,  the  son  of  Francis  Richards  and 


114  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Anne  Hallowell  Gardiner.  The  families  from  which 
he  is  descended,  the  Richardses,  the  Gardiners,  the 
Hallowells,  and  the  Tudors,  have  all  been  prominent 
and  have  played  an  important  part  in  the  life  of 
their  times.  The  Richards  family  had  at  the  time 
of  Professor  Richards's  marriage  been  connected 
with  the  famous  Howe  family  through  the  marriage 
of  Professor  Richards's  brother,  Henry  Richards,  to 
Laura  Elizabeth  Howe,  daughter  of  Samuel  Gridley 
Howe  and  Julia  Ward  Howe. 

The  sons  of  the  Richards  family  had  been  classi- 
cally educated  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  there  was 
no  thought  that  Robert  would  be  an  exception.  For 
seven  years,  five  of  which  were  spent  in  England  and 
two  in  the  United  States,  an  effort  was  made  to 
force  him  into  the  mold  which  such  a  training  offers, 
the  only  results  being  anxiety  to  his  friends  and 
suffering  for  himself.  In  February,  1865,  while 
at  Phillips  Exeter  Academy  studying  Latin  and 
Greek  and  looking  forward  to  the  Harvard  en- 
trance examinations,  he  received  a  letter  from 
his  mother  in  Boston,  saying  that  her  cousin  by 
marriage,  Professor  William  Barton  Rogers,  was 
about  to  start  a  scientific  school,  and  that  perhaps 
he  might  want  to  enter  it  instead  of  Harvard. 
Professor  Richards  says  now  that  he  hopes  he 
had  politeness  enough  to  say  good-by  to  his  head 
master,  but  he  is  not  at  all  sure,  and  that  if  he 
did  it  was  the  only  formality  to  which  he  gave 


IN  HER  HOME  115 

time  before  leaving  for  Boston.  Arrived  there 
he  immediately  entered  the  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, being  the  seventh  pupil  to  matriculate. 
Admitted  to  classes  in  geology  and  chemistry,  and 
being  encouraged  to  relate  what  he  had  learned 
to  the  life  about  him,  the  scales  fell  from  his  eyes, 
and  for  the  first  time  in  all  his  life  he  says  he  "saw." 
Like  Miss  Swallow  he  had  reached  his  life  work 
through  tribulation  of  spirit,  though  the  tribulation 
had  been  of  a  different  sort  from  hers. 

Before  Professor  Richards  and  Miss  Swallow  were 
married,  they  had  selected  a  home  at  32  Eliot  Street, 
Jamaica  Plain,  about  four  miles  from  the  Institute. 
To  this  house  they  went  directly  after  a  quiet  wed- 
ding in  Union  Chapel,  a  mission  church  with  which 
Miss  Swallow  had  connected  herself.  To  the  young 
married  people  who  lose  their  heads  more  or  less  on 
their  wedding  day,  it  will  be  comforting  to  know 
that  even  the  staid  professor  and  his  learned  wife 
made  something  of  a  muddle .  of  their  prepara- 
tions. "Robert  made  several  blunders  in  packing 
his  things,"  his  wife  wrote  the  day  after  the  wed- 
ding, "and  when  he  got  here  he  found  he  had  no 
necktie  but  a  white  one.  Before  I  had  done  laugh- 
ing at  him,  I  found  that  I  had  left  all  my  keys  in 
the  closet  door  at  523  Columbus  Avenue,  and  could 
get  at  no  clothes  except  those  I  had  on."  So  the 
professor  had  to  go  in  town  wearing  his  wedding 
necktie  and  get  the  keys  which  would  release  his 
wife's  work-a-day  clothes. 


116  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

On  June  7  they  started  upon  a  unique  wed- 
ding trip  to  Nova  Scotia,  accompanied  by  Pro- 
fessor Richards's  entire  class  in  mining  engineering, 
which  he  was  taking  out  for  practical  work.  On 
their  return,  a  Vassar  friend  who  was  accom- 
panied by  some  fashionable  women,  strangers  to 
Mrs.  Richards,  happened  to  meet  her  on  the  steps 
of  the  Institute.  The  strangers  refused  to  believe 
that  the  woman  in  outing  costume,  which  included 
heavy  boots  and  a  short  skirt,  much  less  familiar 
then  than  now,  was  in  reality  a  bride,  just  returned 
from  her  wedding  trip. 

The  details  of  the  housekeeping  of  the  woman 
who  organized  the  American  Home  Economics  Asso- 
ciation, and  who  succeeded  in  making  a  home  and 
carrying  on  a  profession  at  the  same  time,  are,  of 
course,  of  general  interest.  This  fact  gives  an  ex- 
cuse for  piercing  the  veil  of  privacy  that  hangs  about 
the  home,  and  for  asking  what  manner  of  house- 
keeper Mrs.  Richards  was  and  how  she  ordered  her 
home  life. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  her  home  was  not 
strikingly  or  obtrusively  different  from  any  other 
well-conducted  home,  the  differences  which  existed 
being  in  the  amount  of  attention  given  to  the  essen- 
tials, in  its  cleanness — which  was  of  the  shining 
order  so  far  as  surfaces  were  concerned  and  which 
extended  to  hidden  places  and  even  to  the  air,  clean 
air  being  her  hobby — in  its  freedom  from  fads,  and 


IN  HER  HOME  117 

in  the  intelligence  with  which  it  welcomed  any  new 
household  utensil  or  furnishings  or  practice  which 
gave  promise  of  contributing  to  health  and  efficiency. 
When  Mrs.  Richards  began  housekeeping  in  the 
seventies,  she  furnished  her  house  with  carpets  as 
every  one  else  did.  But  when  for  the  sake  of  greater 
convenience  or  safety  she  changed  her  methods; 
when,  for  example,  she  substituted  rugs  for  carpets, 
began  to  use  gas  instead  of  coal  for  cooking,  installed 
a  telephone,  or  experimented  with  the  vacuum  cleaner 
for  house  cleaning,  she  always  counted  the  cost,  not 
only  in  money,  but  in  time  and  steps.  When  she 
began  to  use  a  gas  stove  she  had  a  meter  placed  in 
her  kitchen,  and  with  the  assistance  of  a  young  engi- 
neer who  was  living  in  her  home  made  a  thorough 
study  of  the  amount  of  gas  required  for  preparing 
different  dishes  and  for  carrying  on  various  house- 
hold processes.  She  carefully  computed,  too,  the 
amount  of  time  involved  in  caring  for  rugs  and 
hardwood  floors  as  compared  with  carpets.  In  her 
last  public  address,  which  was  at  Ford  Hall,  Boston, 
on  the  subject,  "Is  the  Increased  Cost  of  Living 
a  Sign  of  Social  Advance?"  and  in  which  she  re- 
viewed her  housekeeping  experiences  of  thirty-five 
years,  showing  that  the  cost  had  doubled  in  that 
time,  she  gave  abundant  proof  that  she  understood 
her  own  problems,  not  only  in  their  relation  to  her 
family  life,  but  also  in  their  social  bearings. 

When  Professor  and  Mrs.  Richards  went  to  house- 


118 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 


keeping,  Jamaica  Plain  was  connected  with  Boston 
by  a  very  slow,  one-track  street  railway  and  by 
a  steam  railway  whose  station  was  about  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  house.  They  made  a 


The  Porch  at  32  Eliot  Street 


sacrifice  of  time,  therefore,  in  order  to  live  in 
a  place  where  they  could  have  a  detached  house 
and  a  garden.  A  house  with  a  roof  of  its  own 
unconnected  with  other  roofs  Mrs.  Richards  always 


IN  HER  HOME  119 

considered  essential  to  the  best  family  life.  Their 
house  stands  on  a  corner  lot  and  has  air  and  light 
on  all  sides  and  also  sun,  this  last  because  it  faces 
a  street  which  runs  diagonally. 

In  1883  a  small  Sanitary  Science  Club  was 
formed  in  Boston  in  connection  with  the  newly 
organized  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae.  Each 
member  of  the  club  made  a  study  of  her  own  home, 
and  in  addition  Mrs.  Richards  threw  open  her  home 
for  a  study  by  the  entire  club.  She  often  said  laugh- 
ingly, afterward,  that  that  study  cost  her  five  hun- 
dred dollars  because  of  the  changes  which  it  led  her 
to  make.  One  permanent  result  of  the  work  of  this 
club  was  a  little  book,  "Home  Sanitation,"  edited 
by  Mrs.  Richards  and  Miss  Marion  Talbot,  one  of 
the  most  helpful  features  of  which  was  a  series 
of  illuminating  questions  which  the  housewife  might 
put  to  herself  with  reference  to  her  home.  This  was 
only  one  of  the  many  cases  in  which  Mrs.  Richards 
put  into  permanent  and  available  form  work  which 
other  people  allow  to  be  lost  to  the  world. 

In  the  summer  of  1908  I  was  visiting  at  her 
house  when  she  received  from  Professor  John  R. 
Commons  an  advance  copy  of  his  Score  Card  for 
Houses,  with  a  request  that  she  criticise  it.  She 
handed  it  to  me  and  asked  me  to  score  her  own 
house;  and  having  made  the  necessary  examination 
and  measurements,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  handing  it 
back  to  her  with  a  perfect  score  marked  upon  it. 


120  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

The  following  prosaic  details  are  given  because 
there  are  young  people  all  over  the  country  who 
have  looked  to  Mrs.  Richards  for  guidance  in  small 
matters  as  well  as  in  large,  and  who  will  value  more 
minute  particulars. 

The  house  is  heated  by  a  furnace  and  ventilated 
by  means  of  a  skylight  in  the  third  floor  hall,  which 
is  kept  open  except  in  the  most  inclement  weather, 
thus  insuring  the  passage  of  clean,  fresh  air,  even 
when  the  windows  are  closed.  The  extra  fuel  which 
this  involves  is  not  considered  a  luxury  but  a  neces- 
sity. In  places  where  the  air  is  peculiarly  liable  to 
pollution  there  are  extra  provisions  for  ventilation. 
In  the  kitchen,  there  is  not  only  a  hood  over  the 
gas  stove,  and  screens  in  the  tops  of  the  windows 
so  that  they  can  be  lowered  as  well  as  raised,  but 
also  two  holes  cut  in  the  very  top  outer  walls  and 
fitted  with  registers  which  can  be  opened  or  closed 
by  means  of  cords.  There  is  a  similar  ventilator  at 
the  highest  point  on  the  back  staircase  which  leads 
up  to  a  back  hall  separated  from  the  rest  of  the 
house  by  a  door.  Thus  any  odors  which  escape 
from  the  kitchen  when  the  door  into  the  stairway 
is  open  find  an  easy  means  of  escape.  The  fireplace 
in  the  living  room  has  a  drop  for  the  ashes  which 
leads  into  a  closely  bricked  compartment  in  the 
cellar.  Many  years  ago,  when  most  people  were 
going  without  hot  water  when  there  was  no  fire  in 
the  kitchen  stove,  she  installed  a  small  heater  in  the 


IN  HER  HOME 

casement  for  summer  use  and  a  water  back  in 
;he  furnace  for  winter  use,  which  supply  an  abun- 
lance  of  hot  water  all  the  year  round  and  with  very 
ittle  fuel. 

Over  the  chandelier  in  the  study,  where  the  most 
*as  is  burned  for  illuminating  purposes,  there  is  a 
ventilator  designed  by  Professor  and  Mrs.  Richards, 
[t  consists  of  a  cylinder  with  three  branches,  one 
jver  each  burner.  The  main  pipe  or  cylinder  is 
carried  through  the  ceiling,  then  through  the  beams 
and  side  walls  of  the  house  to  the  attic,  where  it  is 
connected  with  the  chimney.  This  carries  off  the 
products  of  combustion  and  also  acts  as  a  ventilator. 

There  are  no  curtains  in  the  house,  with  the 
exception  of  short  washable  ones  in  the  bedrooms 
and  bathroom,  but  many  of  the  windows  are  full 
of  plants  and  vines.  Shortly  after  Professor  and 
Mrs.  Richards  moved  into  the  house,  they  enlarged 
the  dining  room,  making  a  place  for  plants  at  the 
back  which  serves  the  purposes  of  a  conservatory, 
but  which  because  of  its  accessibility  is  much  more 
practicable  for  a  home  where  little  help  is  employed. 
This  extension,  which  looks  toward  the  southwest, 
is  supplied  with  a  water  tap  so  arranged  that  the 
plants  can  be  sprinkled  by  means  of  a  hose  without 
danger  of  injuring  any  of  the  furnishings  of  the 
room.  No  draperies  ever  gave  to  a  room  the  beauty 
which  Mrs.  Richards's  flowers  gave  to  her  dining 
room.  * 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

The  food  served  at  Mrs.  Richards's  dining  table 
was  always  determined  with  reference  to  its  effect 
upon  efficiency  in  work.  If  after  a  fair  trial  a  given 
food  seemed  to  leave  the  brain  dull  and  the  body 
unfit  for  labor,  it  was  rejected.  This  process  of 


The  Vine-Covered  Dining  Room 

elimination  disposed,  in  the  course  of  time,  of  most 
of  what  are  known  as  "made  dishes."  There  were 
few  rich  gravies  in  her  bills  of  fare,  few  complicated 
salads,  and  little  pastry.  The  bills  of  fare  were 
made  up  chiefly  of  meat,  which,  however,  she  never 
used  in  very  large  quantities,  of  good  homemade 
bread,  fruit,  and  vegetables.  Fruit  or  simple  ice 


IN  HER  HOME  123 

cream  usually  constituted  the  dessert.  As  time 
went  on  and  life  grew  complicated,  Mrs.  Richards 
was  forced  to  adopt  what  she  considered  unnecessary 
elaborations,  but  her  ideal  was  always  simplicity. 

Established  in  their  new  home,  Mrs.  Richards 
decided  not  to  pass  the  housework  over  to  the  usual 
hired  helper,  but  to  make  a  home  for  girls  who 
were  anxious  to  get  an  education  and  to  allow  them 
to  work  for  their  board.  For  several  years  this 
arrangement  continued,  until  the  pressure  of  outside 
work  made  it  necessary  for  her  to  have  regular  help. 
During  all  this  time,  however,  she  had  the  additional 
assistance  of  a  little  girl  who  came  at  first  to  help 
after  school,  and  later  was  sent  by  Mrs.  Richards 
to  cooking  school  and  became  so  expert  that  she 
took  full  charge  of  the  housekeeping.  When  she  was 
married,  in  1884,  Mrs.  Richards,  instead  of  mourn- 
ing over  her  loss,  rejoiced  that  she  had  had  a  part 
in  the  training  of  a  good  home  maker.  As  Pro- 
fessor Richards  once  said,  after  telling  me  that  they 
had  found  it  somewhat  expensive  to  help  students  by 
giving  them  work  at  their  home  and  in  their  offices 
and  laboratories,  "But  we  decided  that  that  was 
"what  we  were  here  for." 

"Yes,  I  think  my  housekeeping  is  a  success,"  we 
find  in  a  letter  of  March  11,  1878.  "My  first 
young  woman  is  now  in  Smith  College  by  its  means. 
I  have  six  in  the  family  this  winter.  My  mother  has 
come  to  live  with  us  and  I  have  two  young  women 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

paying  their  way  both  here  and  in  the  Laboratory. 
The  result  is  that  we  are  doing  good  and  the  cost 
of  housekeeping  is  not  a  mere  outgo.  We  have 
pleasant  people  around  us  and  willing  hands  and 
quick  brains  for  any  emergency." 

Mrs.  Richards's  second  regular  helper  came  to 
her  in  1884  and  stayed  with  her  almost  continu- 
ously for  twenty-six  years.  After  she  had  been 
there  about  ten  years,  a  terrible  tragedy  left  her 
and  her  mother  the  only  members  of  their  family. 
Mrs.  Richards  immediately  took  the  mother  into  her 
home  and  gave  her  the  room  which  had  formerly  been 
occupied  by  her  own  mother,  who  had  died  a  short 
time  before. 

In  the  autumn  of  1910,  when  it  became  necessary 
for  Mrs.  Richards  to  make  a  new  arrangement  for 
her  housework,  her  skillful  management  became  very 
apparent.  Having  selected  two  new  girls,  she  put 
into  their  hands  typewritten  directions,  telling  them 
where  to  find  things,  where  to  order  things,  and  where 
to  telephone  in  case  of  emergencies  of  various  kinds 
—accidents  to  plumbing,  for  example.  She  made 
note  of  the  regular  engagements  of  the  family,  the 
general  character  of  the  meals  which  she  wished  to 
have  served,  and  other  details  of  this  kind.  The  most 
interesting  fact  about  these  directions  is  that  they 
embodied  just  enough  information  to  keep  the  house- 
hold running  smoothly  until  the  girls  could  adjust 
themselves  to  their  new  surroundings,  but  not  enough 


IN  HER  HOME  125 

particulars  to  be  confusing.  No  wonder  that  a 
graduate  of  the  Institute  of  Technology,  who  had 
lived  for  a  year  in  Mrs.  Richards's  family,  wrote 
of  her  recently:  "She  had  mastered  the  principles 
of  scientific  management  long  before  they  became 
the  subject  of  discussion  in  the  industrial  world." 
,  One  of  the  characteristic  features  of  her  house- 
keeping was  the  regular  weekly  program  which  she 
laid  out  and  which  contributed  very  greatly  to  the 
economy  not  only  of  her  own  but  of  other  people's 
time.  Tuesday  afternoon  she  always  remained  at 
home.  In  the  intervals  between  calls  she  brought 
her  housekeeping  up  to  date  and  made  plans  for  the 
coming  week.  On  that  evening,  Professor  Richards's 
brother,  Mr.  George  H.  Richards,  who  lives  in  Bos- 
ton, always  dined  at  the  house.  This  insured  a  weekly 
visit  with  him  without  the  necessity  for  correspond- 
ence or  arrangement  of  dates.  If  there  were  dinner 
parties,  they  were  always  arranged  for  Tuesday 
night.  Monday  evenings  for  a  great  many  years 
were  regularly  given  to  an  uncle  of  Professor  Rich- 
ards, Mr.  Richard  Sullivan,  who  was  an  invalid  and 
finally  became  blind.  He,  like  Mrs.  Richards  herself, 
was  interested  in  the  progress  of  science.  She  read 
to  him  popular  treatises  on  science,  periodicals,  and 
books  of  travel.  This  engagement  she  never  broke 
during  all  the  years  of  his  invalidism.  If  she  were 
out  of  town,  she  wrote  to  him  a  long  letter  on  Mon- 
day evening,  telling  him  of  her  work  and  her  plans. 


126  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Her  devotion  to  "Uncle  Richard"  makes  a  beautiful 
chapter  of  her  life  and  one  with  which  few  people 
are  acquainted. 

About  twenty  years  after  her  marriage,  she  so  far 
overcame  the  Puritan  prejudices  of  her  early  years 
as  to  become  interested  in  the  theater,  and  Friday 
evenings  were  given  by  her  and  Professor  Richards 
to  this  form  of  entertainment.  Their  friends  knew 
that  they  would  be  going  to  the  theater  on  that 
evening,  and  frequently  arranged  to  take  seats  near 
them  in  order  to  get  the  opportunity  for  a  short 
visit. 

Not  only  were  the  weeks  carefully  planned  for, 
but  also  the  days.  Each  night  she  wrote  out  brief 
notes  of  the  different  things  to  be  done  the  next  day, 
and  the  order  in  which  they  were  to  be  taken  up. 

No  description  of  Mrs.  Richards's  home  life  is 
complete  without  an  account  of  the  help  which  she 
constantly  gave  to  Professor  Richards  in  his  pro- 
fessional work.  It  was  his  somewhat  unusual  task 
to  develop  a  department  of  mining  engineering  many 
miles  away  from  any  of  the  mines.  This  task  he  per- 
formed so  successfully  as  to  make  his  department 
one  of  the  strongest  in  the  country,  and  in  the  up- 
building of  the  work  he  had  not  only  her  sympathy 
but  her  active  help.  Her  quickness  in  reading 
extended  to  other  languages  than  English,  and 
by  following  foreign  journals  and  books  she  was  of 
invaluable  assistance  to  him. 


IN  HER  HOME  127 

Mrs.  Richards's  skillful  planning  of  her  days  and 
hours  left  time  for  abundant  hospitality.  This 
hospitality,  as  it  went  out  to  friends  from  out  of 
town,  was  quite  her  own.  She  never  gave  up  her 
regular  work  for  them,  but  always  had  them  on  her 
nind,  and  seemed  to  know  by  intuition  just  what 
?ach  particular  person  would  want  to  see  in  Boston 
ind  just  how  to  direct  him  or  her  so  as  to  economize 
time.  Those  who  have  experienced  this  hospitality 
}f  hers  well  remember  the  little  maps  which  she  used 
to  draw  for  their  convenience.  These  maps  were 
^ike  her  handwriting.  They  had  just  enough  lines 
3n  them  to  serve  their  purpose,  but  not  one  to 
»pare.  In  making  them,  as  in  forming  a  word,  she 
knew  what  could  be  left  out  as  well  as  what  must 
3e  put  in. 

But  there  were  those  who  shared  in  the  hospitality 
>f  this  home  in  more  intimate  ways.  One  of  them, 
i  niece  of  Professor  Richards,  says:  "The  hospital- 
ty  of  her  home  was  literally  unbounded.  This  kind 
loor  was  always  open.  No  piled-up  amount  of  work, 
10  complication  of  engagements,  interfered  with  the 
velcome  that  was  always  shining  and  ready.  Think 
rvhat  it  is  to  be  able  to  say  of  a  house  that  there 
Dne  felt  that  one  could  never  come  at  the  wrong  time 
:>r  be  in  the  >Vay  !  Such  hospitality  is  hard  enough 
:o  accomplish  in  one  of  the  great  modern  country 
louses,  with  endless  guest  rooms  and  a  host  of  serv- 
ants ;  but  here  more  often  than  not  the  guest,  with- 


128  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

out  ever  knowing  it,  had  the  hostess's  room.  I  have 
known  her,  at  the  time  of  a  family  reunion,  to  fill 
every  room  in  the  house  with  relatives.  'They  can 
all  see  each  other  more  comfortably  here,  and  some 
of  them  might  find  the  expenses  of  a  hotel  difficult 
to  meet,'  she  would  say.  After  a  merry  evening, 
she  would  bid  them  a  smiling  good-night,  slip  in  town 
herself  for  a  bed  at  the  College  Club  or  elsewhere, 
and  be  back  in  time  to  greet  her  happy  and  uncon- 
scious guests  at  breakfast. 

"I  think  that  to  every  one  who  had  the  privilege 
of  knowing  her  in  her  own  house,  the  thought  of  her 
brings  with  it,  as  a  matter  of  course,  a  picture  of 
that  house.  It  was  an  expression  of  herself,  and  it  is 
hard  to  find  words  to  express  at  all  adequately  the 
sense  of  restfulness,  of  peace,  which  seemed  a  part 
of  it.  It  was  like  breathing  clearer  air  to  come  to  it. 
The  dust  of  non-essentials  had  been  swept  away ;  and 
not  only  this,  but  the  life-giving  supply  of  oxygen 
seemed  greater  here  than  elsewhere,  and  one  breathed 
an  air  at  once  restful  and  invigorating.  Persons 
leading  perforce  a  complex  city  life,  beset  with  under- 
takings overtaxing  time  and  strength,  came  here  as 
to  a  refuge,  not  only  for  dear  affection,  but  for  re- 
freshment and  rest — for  actual  strength.  No  house 
of  leisure  that  I  know  gave  the  sense  of  quiet  and 
tranquillity  that  this  house  of  keen  and  arduous  work 
did — work  which  never  paused  and  yet  was  never 
hurried — 'Ohne  hast,  ohne  ruh.'  Truly  it  showed 


IN  HER  HOME  129 

hat 

*  In  the  house  of  labour  best 
Can  I  build  the  house  of  rest.' 

cannot  tell  how  often  just  the  thought  of  this 
ouse  has  brought  to  me  a  sense  of  clearness  when 
have  felt  overdriven  and  harassed." 

Besides  making  her  home  a  happy  gathering  place 
or  intimate  friends  and  relatives,  and  a  Mecca  for 
hose  who  were  interested  in  the  lines  of  work  in 
rhich  she  was  engaged,  and  who  lived  in  other  places, 
Irs.  Richards  made  it  a  meeting  place  for  the  faculty 
nd  students  of  the  Institute  of  Technology.  She 
ntertained  the  members  of  her  own  and  Professor 
lichards's  classes  every  year — not  at  formal  recep- 
ions,  but  at  good  old-fashioned  suppers,  where  there 
as  enough  to  eat  to  rejoice  the  heart  of  the  boys, 
:ul  always  an  original  entertainment  afterwards.  In 
ddition  to  entertaining  all  of  their  students  in  this 
ay,  Professor  and  Mrs.  Richards  always  invited  to 
inner  any  young  man  or  young  woman  who  was 
pecially  introduced  to  them  or  who  had  any  special 
onnection  with  them — sons  and  daughters  of  their 
id  schoolmates,  for  example,  or  of  their  old  friends. 
Irs.  Richards  had  a  purpose  in  doing  this,  in  addi- 
ion  to  that  of  promoting  sociability.  She  looked 
ith  great  solicitude  upon  the  growing  complications 
f  life  and  the  high  standards  of  living  which  made 
oung  people  of  small  incomes  hesitate  to  marry. 
I  like  to  show  them  what  they  can  have  with  very 


130  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

simple  means,"  she  said  once,  in  writing  to  a  friend 
about  the  young  people  she  invited  to  her  house. 

At  the  memorial  meeting  held  by  the  American 
Home  Economics  Association  in  San  Francisco  dur- 
ing the  summer  of  1911,  a  student  of  the  Institute 
of  Technology,  who  lives  in  California,  asked  the 
privilege  of  saying  something  about  Mrs.  Richards 
in  her  personal  relations.  Having  been  given  a  place 
on  the  program,  he  made  this  beautiful  tribute  to 
her: 

"It  was  in  1908  that  I  first  reached  Boston,  a 
perfect  stranger,  with  only  a  letter  of  introduction 
to  Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards.  I  took  the  first  oppor- 
tunity to  present  this  letter,  and  the  impression  that 
Mrs.  Richards  made  upon  me  was  so  striking  that  it 
will  last  as  long  as  does  my  memory.  I  would  like 
to  tell  those  who  never  saw  her  how  she  appeared. 
Mrs.  Richards  was  a  small  woman  with  a  thin  face, 
white  hair,  very  black  eyebrows,  and  eyes  that 
sparkled  with  life  like  gems.  She  was  active,  bub- 
bling over  with  energy,  but  most  of  all,  she  was  kind. 

"The  previous  speakers  have  told  you  how  great 
Mrs.  Richards  was  as  an  educator  and  as  a  woman, 
but  to  us,  the  strangers  at  Tech,  she  was  greatest 
as  a  friend.  Every  year  she  had  at  her  house  an 
entertainment  for  those  who  came  from  distant  parts 
of  the  world.  These  evenings  were  always  informal; 
the  men  smoked  and  we  came  to  know  each  other  and 
Professor  and  Mrs.  Richards.  After  dinner,  Pro- 


IN  HER  HOME 

sssor  Richards  would  give  an  exhibition  of  glass- 
lowing,  and  he  always  made  a  water  hammer  which 
,ter  in  the  evening  would  be  raffled  off  amidst  great 
nusement. 

"But  it  was  nqt  only  at  these  little  parties  that 
le  men  came  to  know  Mrs.  Richards ;  we  were  always 
elcome  at  that  pleasant,  old-fashioned  Jamaica 
lain  home,  and  I  think  hardly  a  Sunday  afternoon 
assed  but  what  some  of  the  boys  would  call. 

"In  all,  Mrs.  Richards  was  a  sweet  and  inspiring 
•iend  to  us.  Her  hospitality  was  unlimited,  and 
?r  kindness  is  a  priceless  memory." 

This  was  the  manner  of  the  home-making  of  the 
mnder  of  the  American  Home  Economics  Associa- 
on;  it  may  well  serve  as  a  model  for  other  women 
ho  wish  to  have  homes  and  professions  also. 


The  Hospitable  Gate 


CHAPTER  VIII 


MRS.  RICHARDS'S  marriage,  by  relieving  her  of  the 
necessity  of  self-support,  put  her  in  a  new  economic 
position,  and  very  much  enlarged  for  her  what  she 
used  to  call  the  "region  of  choice."  She  had  known 
what  it  was  to  be  poor  and  to  be  obliged  to  earn 
her  own  living.  Now  she  was  to  know  the  problems 
of  decision  which  come  to  those  who  are  free  to 
choose  what  they  will  do  with  their  time  and  their 
strength. 

What  she  chose  to  do  with  part  of  her  new-found 
time  was,  as  we  have  seen,  to  continue  her  work  as 
an  analyst.  In  a  letter  written  on  February  15, 
1876,  she  said  that  in  the  three  preceding  months 
she  had  earned  two  hundred  and  ten  dollars  "in  her 
old  line."  But  having  struggled  hard  for  her  own 
education,  and  particularly  for  her  scientific  train- 
ing, she  wanted  to  bring  opportunities  for  scientific 
study  within  easier  reach  of  other  women,  and  it 
was  toward  this  end  that  a  large  part  of  her 
energy  was  directed  during  the  next  eight  years.  In 
November,  1876,  largely  through  her  efforts,  a 
Roman's  Laboratory  was  opened  at  the  Institute 
of  Technology. 


THE    WOMAN'S  LABORATORY        133 

For  the  history  of  the  movement  which  led  up 
to  the  establishment  of  this  laboratory  we  are  de- 
pendent largely  upon  a  letter  that  Mrs.  Richards 
wrote  in  1878.  The  purpose  of  this  letter  was  to 
create  interest  in  the  laboratory  and  to  raise  money 
for  its  support;  and  while  it  was  addressed  to  Mr. 
Edward  Atkinson,  it  was  evidently  meant  for  the 
public.  In  it  Mrs.  Richards  said  that  from  its  be- 
ginning, in  1865,  the  Institute  of  Technology  had 
offered,  in  addition  to  its  regular  courses,  the  Lowell 
Free  Lectures,  which  were  open  to  women  as  well  as 
to  men.  As  early  as  1867  these  Lowell  lectures  had 
included  a  course  in  chemistry  conducted  by  Pro- 
fessor Charles  W.  Eliot,  who  later  became  president 
of  Harvard  University,  and  by  his  associate,  Pro- 
fessor Frank  H.  Storer.  The  following  year  labora- 
tory exercises  were  added  to  the  lectures,  and  as  time 
wont  on  a  course  in  qualitative  analysis  was  offered 
to  those  who  had  completed  the  course  in  general 
chemistry,  each  course,  however,  consisting  of  but 
fifteen  lessons. 

During  the  sixties,  Mrs.  Richards  says  in  this 
letter,  there  had  been  a  growing  demand  for  labora- 
tory instruction  in  science  in  the  high  schools  and 
academies  of  New  England,  and  this  had  been  greatly 
stimulated  by  the  publication  in  1868  of  Eliot  and 
Storer's  Manual  of  Chemistry.  The  result  was  that 
large  numbers  of  women  were  called  upon  to  teach 
chemistry  and  other  sciences,  and  found  themselves 


134  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

unprepared,  particularly  in  laboratory  methods. 
Almost  their  only  opportunity  to  study  science  was 
in  the  Lowell  Free  Lectures. 

In  the  fall  of  1872,  without  previous  announce- 
ment, the  Lowell  courses  in  chemistry  were  omitted. 
That  fall  a  young  woman  medical  student  came  to 
Boston  to  get  instruction  in  qualitative  analysis, 
only  to  meet  with  disappointment.  Her  case  was 
laid  before  Professor  James  M.  Crafts,  of  the  Chem- 
ical Department  of  the  Institute  of  Technology,  and 
by  him  before  Dr.  Samuel  Eliot,  head  master  of  the 
Girls'  High  School  of  Boston.  Dr.  Eliot  brought 
the  matter  to  the  attention  of  the  Woman's  Educa- 
tion Association,  a  society  of  public-spirited  women 
which  had  been  organized  less  than  a  year  before 
with  a  big  purpose  stated  in  a  few  words,  that  of 
"promoting  the  better  education  of  women." 

In  an  enthusiastic  address  before  the  Association, 
Dr.  Eliot  offered  the  use  of  the  newly  equipped 
chemical  laboratory  in  his  school  for  a  class  in  ad- 
vanced chemistry,  providing  the  Association  would 
raise  four  or  five  hundred  dollars  toward  the  cost 
of  instruction  and  of  materials  for  experiment.  To 
this  the  Association  agreed,  and  the  class  was  formed 
in  February,  1*873,  with  Miss  B.  T.  Capen,  of  the 
Girls'  High  School,  and  Miss  Swallow,  of  the  Insti- 
tute of  Technology,  as  instructors.  According  to 
the  records  of  the  Association,  the  class  "consisted 
of  sixteen  young  women  who,  with  perhaps  two  or 


THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY         135 

three  exceptions,  were  rather  over  than  under  twenty- 
two  years  of  age.  Fully  half  of  them  were  actually 
engaged  in  teaching  at  the  same  time." 

All  these  seem  like  small  events  when  viewed  from 
this  distance,  and  at  the  time  they  probably  passed 
almost  unnoticed  by  the  public;  but  the  result  of 
them  was  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  a  strong 
organization  the  meager  opportunities  for  scientific 
study  offered  to  women,  to  acquaint  this  organiza- 
tion with  Miss  Swallow's  ability  as  a  teacher,  and 
to  win  for  its  work  her  lifelong  interest  and  support. 

The  following  year  the  Lowell  lectures  in  chem- 
istry were  resumed,  but  in  view  of  the  growing  de- 
mand for  teachers,  their  inadequacy  became  yearly 
more  apparent.  Realizing  the  increasing  injustice 
of  the  situation,  Mrs.  Richards  appeared  before  the 
Woman's  Education  Association  on  November  11, 
1875,  and  in  an  address  which  made  a  deep  impres- 
sion set  forth  the  needs  of  women.  She  expressed 
the  belief  that  the  governing  board  of  the  Institute 
of  Technology  would  give  space  for  a  woman's 
laboratory  if  the  Association  would  supply  the 
necessary  money  for  instruments,  apparatus,  and 
books.  Scholarships  also  would  be  almost  indispen- 
sable, she  said.  The  Association  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  enter  into  communication  with  the  Institute 
of  Technology,  with  the  result  that  the  Institute 
offered  space  for  a  laboratory  in  a  small  frame  build- 
ing it  was  about  to  erect  for  a  gymnasium,  and  the 


136  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Woman's  Education  Association  agreed  to  raise 
money  for  equipment. 

How  much  all  this  meant  to  Mrs.  Richards,  and 
how  eagerly  she  followed  each  step,  we  learn  from 
her  personal  letters.  One  dated  February  15,  1876, 
shows  the  project  just  begun.  "Now  I  need  only 
two  thousand  dollars  to  have  a  special  room  fitted 
up  for  ten  or  twelve  women,"  she  wrote.  "I  am 
making  a  strong  effort  to  interest  people  in  it,  and 
hope  to  see  it  accomplished  before  I  leave  for  Europe 
in  June."  On  May  11,  success  was  assured.  The 
government  of  the  Institute  had  only  the  day  before 
passed  a  vote  "that  hereafter  special  students  in 
Chemistry  shall  be  admitted  without  regard  to  sex." 
It  had  authorized  a  space  to  be  fitted  up  for  women, 
to  be  ready  for  use  in'  October.  Under  the  date  of 
June  1,  there  is  a  happy  letter  reading:  "We  sail 
for  Europe  June  3.  Miss  Capen  and  I  expect  to 
spend  lots  of  money  in  Jena  for  instruments.  I  am 
to  purchase  for  the  Woman's  Laboratory,  which  is 
a  sure  thing  now.  All  has  prospered  beyond  my 
expectations." 

The  new  laboratory  was  opened  in  November,  and 
was  placed  in  charge  of  Professor  John  M.  Ordway, 
of  the  Institute  of  Technology,  with  Mrs.  Richards 
as  assistant.  In  April,  1877,  Mrs.  Richards  re- 
ported to  the  Association  the  success  of  the  work, 
saying  that  twenty-three  students,  most  of  whom 
were  teachers,  had  been  admitted.  This  report  the 


THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY         137 

president  of  the  Association  supplemented  "with 
several  important  facts  that  Mrs.Richards's  modesty 
rendered  her  reluctant  to  mention."  These  included 
the  devotion  of  her  whole  time  to  the  service  of  the 
students,  "with  no  compensation  whatever,"  the  gift 
of  two  hundred  and  forty  dollars  for  instruments, 
and  last,  but  not  least,  "the  payment  of  fifty  dollars 
for  sweeping  the  laboratory."  We  see  incidentally 
that  while  the  time  had  passed  when  Mrs.  Richards 
was  obliged  to  sweep  her  laboratory  herself,  she  still 
found  it  necessary  to  reach  down  into  her  pocket 
for  money  with  which  to  have  it  cleaned  according 
to  her  standards.  It  should  in  fairness  be  said  that 
the  Institute  of  Technology  was  at  this  time  passing 
through  a  financial  crisis  which  threatened  its  very 
existence.  Professor  Ordway,  too,  gave  all  his  avail- 
able time  to  the  laboratory  without  remuneration, 
and  contributed  several  hundred  dollars. 

During  the  next  seven  years,  Mrs.  Richards  not 
only  worked  in  the  Woman's  Laboratory  without 
salary,  but  gave  an  average  of  one  thousand  dollars 
yearly  to  its  support. 

But  money  was  the  least  of  all  that  she  gave  to 
make  the  laboratory  a  success.  In  those  days  it  was 
necessary  to  help  women  and  girls  to  prepare  them- 
selves to  take  advantage  of  educational  opportuni- 
ties, as  well  as  to  create  the  opportunities.  We  need 
only  read  letters  written  at  the  time  to  be  reminded 
that  what  may  b.e  called  the  habit  of  ill  health  had 


138  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

taken  hold  of  a  large  portion  of  the  people,  espe- 
cially the  women.  This  condition  of  affairs  was  due 
in  part,  no  doubt,  to  helplessness  in  the  presence  of 
sickness  ;  for  many  diseases — tuberculosis  in  particu- 
lar— which  have  now  come  under  control  were  then 
quite  unchecked,  and  there  was  little  known  and  con- 
sequently little  taught  about  sanitation  or  hygiene. 
But  whatever  the  cause,  weakness  and  not  health 
was  considered  the  normal  condition  of  women.  It 
was  Mrs.  Richards's  task,  therefore,  to  help  those 
who  were  really  sick  and  weak,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  inspire  with  courage  and  ambition  those  who  had 
fallen  into  the  prevailing  habit  of  thought.  In  doing 
this  she  showed  to  a  very  unusual  degree  the  power 
to  maintain  the  highest  standard  for  the  average 
women,  without  failing  to  sympathize  with  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  individual  woman.  She  advised  with  the 
students  about  their  health,  cared  for  them  when 
they  were  sick,  and  took  one  of  them,  a  helpless  vic- 
tim of  tuberculosis,  into  her  home  and  nursed  her 
until  her  death.  To  another  who  suffered  a  serious 
nervous  breakdown  she  gave  an  opportunity  to  go 
about  the  state  and  collect  samples  of  groceries  for 
analysis,  a  work  which  kept  her  much  in  the  open 
air.  Thus  wisely  did  she  fit  special  help  to  special 
needs. 

Besides  being  handicapped  by  ill  health,  women  of 
those  days  were  hindered  even  more  than  now  by  lack 
of  money.  Parents  seldom  thought  it  so  necessary 


THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY        139 

that  girls  should  be  educated  as  that  boys  should  be, 
and  besides,  when  a  girl  tried  to  earn  money  for  her 
own  education  she  was  handicapped  by  the  smallness 
of  her  pay.  Seeing  the  financial  burden,  therefore, 
under  which  many  ambitious  young  women  labored, 
Mrs.  Richards  set  about  securing  assistance  for 
them.  We  have  already  seen  that  many  of  the  young 
women  who  studied  in  the  laboratory  during  the 
early  days  were  taken  into  her  home.  Several  of 
them,  too,  were  given  opportunities  to  help  in  her 
professional  work.  In  addition  to  this,  she  was  con- 
stantly placing  before  the  Woman's  Education 
Association  and  before  philanthropic  individuals 
cases  of  special  promise  or  urgent  need.  As  time 
went  on  several  scholarships  were  established  and 
large  sums  of  money  were  given  to  Mrs.  Richards 
to  be  used  in  paying  the  expenses  of  the  students. 
Among  her  papers  have  been  found  receipts  for 
sums  amounting  to  several  thousand  dollars  which 
had  been  used  for  the  tuition  of  students  in  the 
Woman's  Laboratory  and  later  for  women  students 
in  the  Institute  of  Technology  itself. 

But  there  were  some  students  who  needed  neither 
financial  help  nor  advice  about  their  health,  for  the 
opportunities  of  the  laboratory  were  sought  by 
women  of  leisure  as  well  as  by  teachers.  One  of 
these  women  who  came  into  the  Woman's  Labora- 
tory after  having  graduated  from  college  tells  a 
story  which  shows  how  Mrs.  Richards  adapted  to 


140  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

circumstances  the  assistance  that  she  gave.  One  day 
this  student  was  carrying  on  a  long  series  of  weigh- 
ings when  she  became  conscious  that  Mrs.  Richards's 
eye  was  on  her.  Finally  Mrs.  Richards  came  to  her 
and  said,  "You  are  wasting  motions."  She  had  no- 
ticed that  the  student's  hand  was  making  two  trips 
between  the  balance  and  the  box  of  weights  when  one 
would  have  been  sufficient.  It  was  a  lesson  that  was 
never  forgotten,  and  another  proof  that  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards early  understood  the  principles  of  efficiency. 

There  were  still  other  forms  of  assistance  which 
women  students  of  science  needed  in  those  days. 
It  is  difficult  for  us  who  live  in  these  years  of  com- 
parative freedom  to  realize  how  women  who  chose 
to  walk  new  paths  were  looked  upon  in  the  days  of 
the  Woman's  Laboratory.  To  illustrate:  When,  in 
1876,  a  Boston  branch  of  the  organization  now 
known  as  the  Associate  Alumnae  of  Vassar  College 
,  was  formed,  it  was  thought  unwise  to  have  the  meet- 
\  ing  for  organization  in  a  hotel,  because  the  story 
\that  college  women,  who  were  already  looked  upon 
as  a  strange  order  of  beings,  had  held  a  meeting  in 
Jt  public  place  might  get  into  the  newspapers  and, 
by  bringing  added  reproach,  endanger  the  new  pro- 
ject. As  there  was  no  private  house  available,  it 
was  finally  decided  to  meet  in  a  building  which  had 
been  a  private  residence,  but  which  had  passed  into 
the  hands  of  a  person  who  was  renting  it  for  enter- 
tainments. But  even  this  place  was  semi-public,  and 
for  that  reason  secrecy  was  maintained. 


THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY        141 

In  view  of  the  attitude  toward  college  women 
shown  by  this  incident,  it  was  necessary  for  those 
who  were  interested  in  securing  the  admission  of  girls 
to  the  Institute  of  Technology  to  proceed  most  cau- 
tiously, for  through  a  little  carelessness  all  the 
privileges  that  had  been  won  might  be  forfeited. 
Mrs.  Richards  was  therefore  always  on  guard,  not 
so  much  to  prevent  misconduct  as  to  prevent  the  girls 
from  being  misunderstood  and  misrepresented.  Her 
papers  show  that  she  was  constantly  working,  often- 
times in  such  ways  as  to  conceal  her  own  connection, 
to  keep  the  students  from  attracting  unfavorable 
attention.  The  fact  that  such  watchful  care  must 
have  been  extremely  irksome  to  a  person  of  her  inde- 
pendent spirit  indicates  the  magnitude  of  the  sacrifice 
that  she  was  willing  to  make  in  the  cause  of  women's 
education. 

In  October,  1877,  Mrs.  Richards  made  the  follow- 
ing report  to  the  Woman's  Education  Association: 
"Greater  results  have  already  accrued  from  the 
opening  of  the  laboratory  than  could  have  been 
thought  possible  a  year  ago,  since  every  department 
of  the  Institute  of  Technology  is  open  to  young 
women  and  any  one  who  can  pay  her  fees  and  pass 
the  test  examination  can  there  obtain  scientific  edu- 
cation." As  a  result  of  this  action  on  the  part  of 
the  authorities  of  the  Institute,  several  of  the  special 
students  in  the  Woman's  Laboratory  entered  regular 
courses  and  graduated,  and  from  that  time  on  women 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

have  been  on  the  roll  of  students.  But  from  all  parts 
of  the  country  women,  particularly  teachers,  were 
coming  to  get  special  help.  Partly  for  this  reason, 
and  partly  because  the  other  laboratories  were 
crowded,  the  Woman's  Laboratory  was  maintained 
until  the  year  1883,  when  a  new  building  which  had 
been  erected  by  the  Institute  gave  space  for  all  the 
students,  women  as  well  as  men. 

From  the  circumstances  under  which  the  Woman's 
Laboratory  was  started,  it  was  natural  that  the 
students  whom  it  drew  should  need  much  individual 
attention.  There  was  little  uniformity  either  in  the 
character  of  the  preparation  that  they  had  received 
or  in  the  amount  of  time  they  were  able  to  devote 
to  the  work.  In  the  letter  of  1878  to  which  refer- 
ence was  made  early  in  this  chapter,  Mrs.  Richards 
stated  that  she  believed  that  such  conditions  must 
exist  for  many  years.  She  wrote:  "The  methods  of 
instruction  are  at  present  adapted  to  the  individual 
and  to  the  length  of  time  at  her  disposal.  For  the 
next  ten  years  the  teaching  must  be  largely  of  this 
special  and  unusual  character  if  it  is  to  do  the  most 
good.  Women  of  twenty-five  years  of  age  have 
missed  the  scientific  education  of  the  present  day, 
yet  they  ask  for  and  must  have  the  knowledge  of  the 
present.  The  laboratory  was  opened  to  meet  this 
very  want,  and  while  it  will  strive  to  create  new  and 
wider  fields  for  women's  work  in  the  professional 
branches  of  applied  chemistry,  it  will  hold  as  its  first 


THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY 

duty  the  teaching  of  those  who  cannot  go  back  into 
the  schools  and  colleges." 

The  following  letters  show  how  valuable  the  labo- 
ratory was  to  the  teachers  of  that  time. 

Miss  Cora  Pike,  formerly  of  Wheaton  Seminary, 
writes:  "During  the  sixties,  the  study  of  chemistry 
at  Wheaton  Seminary  was  mostly  confined  to  the 
text-book,  supplemented  once  a  year  by  a  course  of 
lectures  from  an  itinerant  expert,  who  with  his  tanks 
of  various  gases  produced  highly  spectacular  effects. 

"It  was  during  the  seventies  that  news  of  Mrs. 
Richards's  laboratory  for  women  reached  the  Semi- 
nary. The  teacher  of  chemistry  at  once  appealed 
to  Mrs.  Richards  for  advice.  She  cordially  invited 
her  to  come  to  Boston  on  Saturdays,  offering  all 
assistance  possible.  Mrs.  Richards  must  have  felt 
it  an  additional  tax  upon  herself,  for  the  laboratory 
was  filled  to  overflowing  with  regular  students;  but 
there  were  no  intimations  of  the  kind,  and  a  course 
of  independent  work  was  planned  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  classes  at  Wheaton. 

"So  much,  indeed,  was  interest  in  experimental 
science  awakened  by  work  with  Mrs.  Richards  in 
Boston  and  at  the  Seminary,  that  in  1878  it  was 
decided  to  build  a  chemical  laboratory  for  the  school. 
Plans  for  it  were  suggested  by  Mrs.  Richards,  and 
her  enthusiastic  interest  in  all  the  natural  sciences 
led  to  the  construction  of  a  room  where  classes  in 
chemistry,  mineralogy,  botany,  physics,  and  biology 


144  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

could  be  equally  well  accommodated.  After  a  few 
years,  the  old  order  at  Wheaton  Seminary  was 
changed  by  Mrs.  Richards's  guiding  hand,  and  nat- 
ural science  was  studied  in  the  light  of  individual 
experiment." 

Miss  Anna  George,  who  at  the  time  of  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards's death  was  eighty-six  years  old  and  had  been 
blind  for  many  years,  wrote:  "It  was  during  the 
seventies,  while  I  was  a  teacher  in  the  Brighton 
High  School,  that  it  was  my  great  privilege  to  study 
chemistry  with  Mrs.  Richards.  How  memory  leaps 
over  the  years  as  I  try  to  recall  her  as  she  then  was, 
so  alert  and  enthusiastic  and  so  kind  and  friendly! 
To  her  'life  was  real,  life  was  earnest,'  and  how  she 
strove  to  impress  upon  us  the  importance  of  turn- 
ing to  good  account  all  the  knowledge  we  gained! 
My  experience  in  teaching  chemistry  was  a  very 
happy  and  successful  one,  and  I  am  sure  this  was 
largely  owing  to  the  inspiration  as  well  as  to  the 
excellent  qualities  of  the  instruction  received  from 
my  teacher." 

Miss  Mary  Evans,  for  many  years  president  of 
Lake  Erie  College  at  Painesville,  Ohio,  says:  "The 
connection  of  Mrs.  Richards  with  Lake  Erie  College 
began  during  the  early  years  of  the  Woman's  Labo- 
ratory. I  was  deeply  interested  in  new  opportuni- 
ties in  science  for  women,  and  the  interest  was  tak- 
ing a  practical  form,  for  we  were  building,  in  1876, 
our  first  addition  and  were  planning  space  in  it  for 


THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY         145 

a  chemical  laboratory  and  a  museum.  We  were  en- 
larging all  our  courses,  and  in  1878  our  teacher  of 
chemistry  and  botany  was  given  leave  of  absence 
to  study  at  the  Institute  of  Technology.  Through 
letters  from  her  we  had  our  first  glimpse  of 
Mrs.  Richards  as  a  woman  of  broad  vision  and 
executive  ability,  and  of  the  home  at  Jamaica  Plain, 
with  its  cordial  welcome  to  students,  its  flowers  and 
pets  and  atmosphere  of  ordered  peace,  a  type  and 
prophecy  of  homes  to  be  influenced  hereafter  by  the 
voice  and  pen  of  Mrs.  Richards.  Later  others  of 
our  teachers  studied  at  the  Institute  of  Technology, 
and  our  admiration  for  Mrs.  Richards  deepened  and 
her  name  became  a  household  word  in  later  years." 

Among  the  other  institutions  to  which  teachers 
went  out  from  the  Woman's  Laboratory  were  Welles- 
ley  College,  Smith  College,  Pennsylvania  College,  the 
Framingham  Normal  School,  Bradford  Seminary, 
Quincy  Mansion  School,  the  Mary  A.  Burnham 
Classical  School,  and  high  schools  in  Boston  and 
elsewhere. 

The  Woman's  Laboratory  having  been  established 
and  put  upon  a  firm  basis  so  far  as  standards  of 
instruction  were  concerned,  the  attention  of  the  stu- 
dents was  directed  towards  women's  special  problems. 
It  was  Mrs.  Richards's  hope  that  many  of  them 
would  devote  themselves  to  the  analysis  of  foods  and 
of  cleaning  materials.  She  herself  was  doing  some 
work  in  this  line  at  the  time,  the  result  of  which  was 


146  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

the  publication  of  two  small  books,  "The  Chemistry 
of  Cooking  and  Cleaning,"  and  "Food  Materials 
and  Their  Adulterations."  In  preparing  these  books, 
Mrs.  Richards  was  so  farsighted  that  although  they 
were  published  in  1881  and  1885,  there  is  after 
thirty  years  an  increasing  demand  for  them  in  re- 
vised editions. 

It  would  be  unwise,  of  course,  to  hazard  an  opinion 
as  to  what  might  have  happened  if  this  work  in 
household  chemistry  had  been  taken  up  by  a  large 
number  of  women  and  pursued  with  that  enthusiasm 
which  Mrs.  Richards  felt  for  it  at  the  time.  It  is 
safe  to  say,  however,  that  if  the  work  had  extended 
as  she  hoped  it  would,  upward  as  well  as  downward 
in  the  schools,  the  practice  of  sophisticating  foods 
which  has  owed  its  baneful  success  largely  to  women's 
ignorance  would  never  have  reached  its  present  large 
and  wasteful  proportions.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  so 
far  as  knowledge  of  food  materials  is  concerned, 
women  are  not  far  in  advance  of  the  position  they 
held  at  the  time  when  Mrs.  Richards  was  making  this 
strenuous  effort  to  lead  them  to  do  serious  scientific 
work  upon  their  own  problems. 

With  the  action  of  the  Institute  of  Technology 
taken  in  1878,  by  which  girls  were  admitted  to 
the  Institute  on  exactly  the  same  footing  as  boys, 
Mrs.  Richards  was  not  in  full  sympathy.  She  be- 
lieved that  it  would  be  wiser  not  to  admit  them  until 
the  third  year.  She  was  overruled,  and  wisely  per- 


THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY         147 

haps,  but  her  objections,  though  based  on  an  en- 
thusiastic overestimate  of  the  demand  for  scientific 
education,  were  very  characteristic  of  her  attitude 
of  mind. 

Her  first  objection  had  its  root  in  her  fixed  belief 
that  it  was  unwise  for  women  to  demand  special 
privileges.  "Military  drill  is  required  for  the  first 
and  second  years.  No  one  would  wish  the  women  to 
drill,  and  the  presence  of  any  favored  class  in  any 
institution  is  unprofitable." 

Her  second  objection  was  based  on  an  apprecia- 
tion of  the  dangers  of  intermittent  coeducation. 
Then,  as  now,  girls  and  boys  were  separated  in  the 
grammar  and  high  schools  of  Boston.  "7  believe 
most  heartily  in  coeducation  from  the  earliest  child- 
hood, but  have  seen  enough  to  convince  me  that  it 
must  be  continuous  and  not  have  an  interregnum 
of  the  years  from  seven  to  fifteen  and  then  begin." 
It  is  significant  that  more  than  thirty  years  after 
she  made  this  statement,  the  same  arguments  were 
brought  up  in  Boston  with  reference  to  bringing  the 
boys  and  girls  together  in  the  high  schools  after 
they  had  been  separated  in  the  lower  grades. 

"Finally,"  she  said,  "and  to  my  mind  the  most 
fundamental  of  all,  though  it  grieves  me  to  say  it, 
the  present  state  of  public  opinion  among  women 
themselves  does  not  give  reason  to  believe  that,  of 
one  hundred  young  girls  of  sixteen  who  might  enter 
if  the  opportunity  was  offered,  ten  would  carry  the 


148  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

course  through.  It  is  demoralizing  to  have  such  re- 
sults in  the  early  stage  of  scientific  education  for 
women."  Exactly  what  Mrs.  Richards  meant  by 
"the  present  state  of  public  opinion"  cannot  be 
known,  but  it  is  probable  that  she  had  in  mind  not 
only  the  accepted  belief  that  women  had  little  physi- 
cal endurance,  but  also  the  fact  that  unreasonable 
demands  upon  their  time  and  foolish  social  conven- 
tions were  allowed  to  interfere  with  their  opportu- 
nity to  make  systematic  preparation  for  professional 
work. 

In  1882,  when  a  new  building  for  the  chemical 
laboratory  was  finally  assured,  Mrs.  Richards  wrote 
the  following  letter,  most  of  which  was  afterwards 
embodied  in  a  circular:  "The  question  of  space  in 
the  new  building  for  the  suitable  accommodation  of 
women  students  has  been  weighing  upon  my  mind  for 
the  last  two  or  three  weeks,  and  after  consultation 
with  General  Walker,  Miss  Crocker,  Miss  Abby  May, 
and  Miss  Florence  Gushing,  we  have  made  ourselves 
a  self-constituted  committee  to  obtain  subscriptions 
from  women  interested  in  the  education  of  women 
toward  a  small  sum,  say  eight  or  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars, which  may  be  put  into  the  hands  of  the  cor- 
poration, in  order  that  they  may  feel  justified  in 
including  in  the  plans  suitable  toilet  rooms  in  con- 
nection with  each  of  the  laboratories  and  a  reception 
room  somewhere  in  the  building  which  shall  be  for 
their  use  only.  If  this  can  be  done,  the  Institute 


THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY         149 

can  then  say  that  it  is  in  a  condition  to  receive 
women." 

Before  the  necessary  sum  of  money  was  raised, 
one  of  the  first  and  most  promising  students  of  the 
Woman's  Laboratory,  Miss  Margaret  Cheney,  the 
only  child  of  Mrs.  Ednah  D.  Cheney,  a  great-souled 
woman  of  Boston,  interested  in  every  phase  of  the 
battle  for  human  freedom,  died  suddenly.  In  her 
honor  the  rest  room  in  the  building  was  named  The 
Margaret  Cheney  Room.  Money  was  contributed  by 
many  people,  but  the  work  of  planning  the  room, 
of  selecting  its  pictures  and  furnishings,  and  of 
carrying  on  the  voluminous  correspondence  which 
always  attends  cooperative  undertakings,  fell  to 
Mrs.  Richards.  The  Margaret  Cheney  Room  has 
ever  since  been  the  center  of  the  life  of  the  women 
students  of  the  Institute  of  Technology. 

In  1883,  the  Woman's  Laboratory  building  was 
torn  down,  and  the  special  service  which  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards did  in  superintending  its  work  came  to  an  end. 
On  July  of  that  year,  weary  from  her  overwhelming 
labors,  she  wrote  this  pathetic  letter:  "I  feel  like  a 
woman  whose  children  are  all  about  to  be  married 
and  leave  her  alone,  so  that  she  is  to  move  into  a 
smaller  house  and  a  new  neighborhood.  You  see  it 
is  quite  a  change  for  me,  and  though  I  knew  it  was 
coming,  I  cannot  at  once  fit  all  the  corners.  My 
work  is  done  and  happily  done,  but  the  energy  will 
have  to  be  used  somehow  and  that  is  the  question. 


150  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

The  case  is  this:  We  women  have  raised  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  and  given  to  the  Institute  to  make  suit- 
able provision  for  women  students  in  all  depart- 
ments. The  new  building,  equal  in  size  nearly  to  the 
old,  is  to  be  ready  in  October.  In  that  are  to  be 
the  chemical  laboratories,  the  ladies'  parlor  and  read- 
ing room,  etc.  Our  present  women's  laboratory  will 
be  torn  down  and  my  duties  will  be  gone,  as  I  shall 
not  go  into  the  new  laboratory.  Now  I  would  not 
mind  if  I  was  away  at  the  Lake  out  of  it  all  or  if  I 
knew  where  to  store  my  apparatus,  but  everything  is 
so  unsettled,  owing  to  the  uncertainty,  as  I  do  not 
know  that  I  shall  have  anything  to  do  or  anywhere 
to  work.  Professor  Richards  is  to  have  a  new  min- 
ing laboratory  and  Professor  Ordway  a  new  indus- 
trial chemical  laboratory  and  I  shall  have  some  sort 
of  work  between  them,  but  that  will  not  be  this 
year. 

"Then  changes  always  disturb  me.  Professor 
Richards's  work  this  summer  is  on  an  electrical  proc- 
ess and  I  cannot  help  him  much,  and  he  can't  give  me 
time  to  go  to  drive  or  to  look  over  the  library  papers 
and  drawers  and  my  day  does  not  seem  to  amount  to 
anything.  ...  I  should  be  perfectly  happy  anywhere 
if  I  could  have  him  with  me,  for  we  always  harmonize ; 
but  to  have  him  charged  with  electricity  so  that  he 
cannot  think  of  anything  else  and  to  have  no  definite 
plans  and  heaps  of  things  to  do  and  no  life  to  do 
them  is  a  little  hard.  .  .  .  Everything  seems  to  fall 


THE  WOMAN'S  LABORATORY         151 

flat  and  I  have  a  sense  of  impending  fate  which  is 
paralyzing." 

Soon  afterward  Mrs.  Richards  was  given  a  place 
on  the  faculty  of  the  Institute  of  Technology,  and 
from  that  time  on  she  performed,  in  addition  to  her 
instructional  work,  all  the  duties  of  Dean  of  Women, 
although  she  was  never  given  that  title.  Nor  did  she 
ever  wish  it.  She  has  left  on  record  her  belief  that 
"a  Dean  of  Women  is  out  of  place  in  a  coeducational 
institution."  She  continued,  however,  to  watch  over 
women  students  in  sickness  and  in  health,  in  their 
work  and  in  their  pleasures.  She  sought  financial 
aid  for  them  and  opportunities  for  them  to  earn 
money;  chaperoned  their  parties,  often  remaining 
far  into  the  evening  after  a  long  day's  work,  and, 
more  often  than  they  suspected,  paying  all  the  ex- 
penses of  the  entertainment;  raised  money  for  a 
woman's  gymnasium  and  superintended  its  construc- 
tion; watched  the  papers  for  unfavorable  criticism 
of  the  students  and  sought  every  means  of  bringing 
their  work  to  the  attention  of  the  people  in  helpful 
ways;  secured  positions  for  them  and  advised  them 
after  they  entered  upon  their  professional  work. 
She  was,  in  short,  as  one  of  them  has  said,  "their 
elder  sister  and  their  foster  mother." 


CHAPTER  IX 

TEACHING    BY    CORRESPONDENCE 

WHAT  Mrs.  Richards  did  for  the  education  of 
those  who  were  able  to  go  to  college  or  who  needed 
only  a  little  encouragement  or  a  little  financial  as- 
sistance to  enable  them  to  do  so  is  but  a  fraction  of 
what  she  did  for  women's  education.  She  herself, 
as  we  know,  had  remained  at  home  in  a  small  country 
town  until  she  was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  longing 
for  a  broader  view,  hungering  and  thirsting  after 
knowledge.  It  was  not  surprising,  therefore,  consid- 
ering her  early  experiences  and  her  missionary  spirit, 
that  when  shortly  after  her  marriage  she  was  asked 
to  take  part  in  the  work  of  a  society  for  the  en- 
couragement of  studies  at  home  she  gladly  accepted 
the  opportunity.  It  may  be,  too,  that  the  newness 
of  the  venture  and  its  novelty,  at  a  time  when  teach- 
ing by  correspondence  was  almost  unknown,  appealed 
to  her  adventurous  spirit,  and  offered  her  an  alluring 
chance  to  pioneer. 

The  Society  to  Encourage  Studies  at  Home,  which 
came  to  be  known  among  busy  people  as  Studies  at 
Home,  or  merely  by  its  initials,  S.H.,  was  founded 
in  1873  chiefly  through  the  instrumentality  of  Miss 

152 


TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE   153 

Anna  Eliot  Ticknor,  daughter  of  the  historian,  a 
woman  to  whom  much  had  been  given  in  the  way  of 
educational  advantages  and  contact  with  intellectual 
people,  and  who  recognized  her  own  obligations  to 
give  much  to  others  in  return.  The  headquarters  of 
the  society  were  for  many  years  in  the  Ticknor 
home,  a  historic  building  which,  though  now  trans- 
formed into  a  business  block,  still  stands  at  9  Park 
Street,  in  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  situations  on 
Beacon  Hill. 

Papers  from  an  English  organization  called  The 
Society  for  Encouragement  of  Home  Study  fell  into 
Miss  Ticknor's  hands  at  a  time  when  the  intellectual 
needs  of  isolated  women  and  those  who  were  neces- 
sarily kept  much  at  home  were  uppermost  in  her 
mind.  She  was  quick  to  act,  and  the  result  was 
the  organization  of  the  American  society  which  for 
twenty-five  years  proved  a  source  of  help  and  en- 
couragement to  thousands  of  women.  Miss  Ticknor 
acted  as  secretary  until  the  time  of  her  death,  in 
1896,  when  the  society  was  discontinued. 

The  American  society  differed  from  the  English 
in  not  confining  its  benefits  to  rich  women  of  leisure. 
In  fact,  it  sought  chiefly  to  help  busy  women  by 
showing  them  how  to  make  profitable  use  of  the  small 
amount  of  time  at  their  disposal  for  systematic  read- 
ing. Nor  did  it  make  the  mistake  of  supposing  that 
isolated  women  are  to  be  found  only  in  rural  districts. 
"The  craving  mind,"  said  Mrs.  Richards  in  one  of 


154  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

her  annual  reports,  "may  be  as  isolated  in  a  city  full 
of  all  the  advantages  which  it  desires  as  if  it  were 
far  from  books,  museums,  and  kindred  minds." 

The  organizers  of  the  society,  ten  in  number,  were 
themselves  women  of  broad  education,  and  they  had 
the  benefit  of  advice  and  assistance  from  many  prom- 
inent educators.  When  Mrs.  Richards  associated 
herself  with  it,  therefore,  she  found  it  doing  thor- 
ough, systematic,  scholarly  work.  This  was,  how- 
ever, chiefly  in  the  subjects  that  can  most  easily  be 
taught  by  correspondence — history,  language,  and 
literature.  It  was  for  her  to  devise  a  plan  for  teach- 
ing those  subjects  that  demand  laboratory  methods. 
The  organization  of  its  work  in  science  was  her  most 
important  contribution  to  the  society.  In  this,  as  in 
every  other  line  of  education,  she  exhibited  a  remark- 
able combination  of  high  ideals  and  standards  for 
the  work  itself  and  of  sympathy  with  the  trials, 
shortcomings,  and  failures  of  individual  students. 

The  beginnings  of  the  Science  Section  are  thus 
described  in  a  memorial  volume  published  after 
Miss  Ticknor's  death:  "In  view  of  the  fact  that 
in  1873  science  was  only  partially  recognized  as  an 
element  in  a  liberal  education,  and  the  laboratory 
method  was  yet  in  its  infancy,  it  seems  an  almost 
prophetic  insight  which  included  science  in  the  list 
of  topics  upon  which  courses  were  offered.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly due  to  the  influence  of  that  great  teacher, 
Louis  Agassiz,  that  this  forward  step  was  taken,  and 


TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE   155 

it  was  by  his  advice,  and  with  his  persuasion,  that 
the  charge  of  the  course  was  taken  for  the  first  two 
years  by  the  woman  who  was  at  that  time  a  most 
ardent  advocate  of  the  study  of  science  as  an  ele- 
vating and  enriching  factor  in  education.  Miss 
Lucretia  Crocker  had  imbibed  deeply  of  the  spirit 
of  Agassiz's  teaching,  and  from  the  first  adopted 
his  watchword,  'Study  from  specimens,  not  from 
books.'  " 

The  Science  Department  came  into  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards's  hands  in  January,  1876,  after  Miss  Crocker 
had  been  appointed  Supervisor  of  Schools  in  Boston, 
and  in  September  of  the  same  year,  upon  the  re- 
organization of  the  work,  she  became  head  of  what 
was  known  as  the  Science  Section.  She  taught  geol- 
ogy, mineralogy,  and  physical  geography,  and  had 
general  supervision  of  the  teaching  of  botany,  geol- 
ogy, and  mathematics. 

Books,  microscopes  and  other  apparatus,  labora- 
tory material — minerals  and  herbariums — were  sent 
by  mail.  With  these  in  the  students'  hands  the  corre- 
spondence opened.  "We  aim  to  unclasp  for  our 
students  the  book  of  nature,"  Mrs.  Richards  said 
in  one  of  her  annual  reports,  "and  bid  them  look 
within.  We  hope  to  inspire  a  love  for  the  truths  of 
nature,  as  well  as  stimulate  a  search  for  facts.  In 
method,  the  study  of  science  might  be  defined  as  the 
art  of  asking  questions — not  as  the  spoiled  child 
asks,  for  the  sake  of  getting  answers;  and,  while 


156  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

students  are  taught  to  question  the  things  them- 
selves, the  teacher  always  leaves  an  open  door  for 
questions  on  ways  of  investigating  and  on  the  mean- 
ings of  observations." 

Into  the  teaching  of  science  and  "the  unclasping 
of  the  book  of  nature"  for  others,  Mrs.  Richards 
seems  to  have  entered  with  all  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  she  had  entered  upon  her  own  studies.  The 
great  majority  of  the  students  in  the  society  were, 
of  course,  in  the  sections  devoted  to  the  humanities, 
but  the  science  students,  though  few  in  number, 
caught  their  leader's  spirit.  "I  took  up  this  new 
study  (mineralogy),"  wrote  one  of  them  in  1883, 
"because  I  wanted  to  know  something  about  it  and 
also  that  I  might  be  one  of  the  enthusiasts  in  the 
'science  corner'  at  the  annual  meetings  of  the  soci- 
ety. The  enthusiasm  of  the  few  in  your  department 
was  so  inspiring  that  I  have  wanted  for  two  years 
to  join  the  band,  and  now  find  leisure  to  do  so." 

"I  received  the  portfolio  on  Saturday,"  wrote 
another.  "...  It  has  supplied  a  want  I  had  to  see  a 
herbarium  started."  And  another,  "This  year  every 
bud  was  interesting,  and  I  shall  hope  to  continue 
next  year."  And  still  another:  "What  a  revelation! 
The  horse-chestnut  had  never  been  a  favorite  of 
mine,  and  now  every  little  twig  has  a  meaning." 

A  student  who  has  since  made  a  name  for  herself 
and  contributed  much  to  the  solution  of  problems 
of  public  health  wrote:  "The  explanations  you  sent 


TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE   157 

me  were  very  clear  and  just  what  I  wanted,  and  I 
am  very  much  obliged  for  them.  Indeed  I  cannot 
tell  you  how  very  grateful  I  feel  for  this  help  you 
give  me.  To  take  so  much  interest  in  a  complete 
stranger  and  to  give  up  so  much  time  and  trouble 
to  me !  I  only  hope  I  shall  some  day  know  enough  to 
be  able  to  help  some  girl  as  you  are  helping  me,  for 
that  is  the  only  way  I  could  ever  pay  off  my  obliga- 
tion to  you." 

One  woman  who,  because  of  the  unconventional 
mode  of  life  adopted  by  her  family,  was  completely 
ostracized  during  the  years  of  her  young  woman- 
hood writes:  "For  a  number  of  years  I  corresponded 
with  her.  How  could  she  ever  have  spared  the  time ! 
Bless  her !  Her  correspondence  and  interest  were 
my  mainstay  through  the  most  difficult  years  of  my 
girlhood  and  lasted  into  middle  life." 

Another  student,  a  clerk  and  bookkeeper  in  a 
general  backwoods  store,  who  wrote  when  she  joined 
the  society,  "It  is  no  use  to  go  on  geological  trips, 
for  there  are  not  any  rocks  about  here  (you  must 
remember  that  I  live  in  the  woods),"  sent  on  a  little 
later  twenty  specimens,  among  which  were  several 
varieties  of  fossil  corals.  In  her  subsequent  letters 
she  often  spoke  of  "something  new"  which  she  had 
found  while  walking  or  riding.  Still  another  stu- 
dent found  fossils  in  a  marble  mantelpiece.  Another 
wrote,  "I  have  eyes  to  see  now  what  I  have  never 
seen  before." 


158  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

There  was  apparently  no  limit  to  the  help  which 
poured  from  Mrs.  Richards's  study  in  Boston  to 
struggling,  perplexed  women.  She  drew  diagrams 
of  convenient  house  plans  and  of  sanitary  arrange- 
ments for  drainage  and  plumbing.  She  helped  them 
to  plan  their  dress.  "If  it  is  a  relief  to  take  your 
clothes  off  at  night,"  she  wrote  to  one  after  giving 
specific  directions  for  healthful  dressing,  "be  sure 
that  something  is  wrong.  I  know  of  no  better  rule 
to  go  by.  Clothes  should  not  be  a  burden.  They 
should  be  a  comfort  and  a  protection."  And  to 
others : 

"As  to  dress,  I  find  -  -  a  very  helpful  publi- 

cation. It  is  much  more  suitable  than  most  such 
papers,  and  the  letters  from  Paris  give  one  an  idea 
of  the  general  principle  of  dress  often  a  year  before 
they  are  seen  on  the  street ;  and  while  there  are  few 
costumes  that  I  should  want  to  wear,  yet  hints  can 
be  gleaned  which  with  a  little  adaptation  serve  to 
keep  one  from  going  so  far  from  the  usual  way  as 
to  be  remarked.  I  believe  in  using  materials  one  likes 
and  in  keeping  one's  self  comfortable,  but  it  is  very 
wise  to  go  unremarked  in  a  crowd." 

"You  are  quite  right  to  give  up  a  parlor.  I  think 
it  is  the  mistake  of  our  country  people  to  shut  up 
one  room  for  company.  You  can  easily  manage 
your  dining  room  to  serve  as  a  sitting  room,  and  if 
people  come  at  meal  time,  well,  let  them.  What 


TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE   159 

matter  such  trifles  after  all.  They  won't  mind  if  you 
don't.  There  is  the  point — do  what  you  think  wise 
and  stick  to  it;  never  mind.  If  you  keep  your 
feathers  well  oiled  the  water  of  criticism  will  run  off 
as  from  a  duck's  back.  Write  again,  please." 

In  addition  to  help  in  these  specific  problems,  she 
sent  cheer  and  encouragement.  To  one  who  had 
passed  through  harrowing  trials  she  wrote:  "Your 
notes  are  very  good  indeed,  and  even  though  you 
may  feel  that  they  do  not  represent  much  work  done, 
yet  a  little  is  something,  and  often  an  occupation  of 
the  mind  helps  the  body.  I  know  that  we  cannot 
always  overcome  physical  weakness;  indeed,  I  have 
had  experience  this  winter;  but  we  can  avoid  many 
troubles  by  a  proper  mental  condition.  I  do  not 
wonder  you  are  not  strong  now,  and  you  must  re- 
member that  when  the  mind  has  been  strained  it 
loses  its  control  of  the  body,  and  the  way  to  come 
back  is  to  bring  the  body  into  as  good  a  condition 
as  possible.  A  little  change  is  the  best  thing,  but 
with  Baby  to  care  for,  that  is  not  easy  to  get.  Still, 
if  possible,  get  it  after  a  fashion.  Now  that  spring 
is  here,  get  out  of  doors." 

To  another  whose  work  had  been  interrupted  by 
weeks  of  illness,  and  who  sent  a  regretful  explanation 
instead  of  her  usual  monthly  report,  she  wrote: 
"The  Society  for  Home  Study  is  to  encourage,  not 
to  urge.  You  must  not  get  discouraged.  I  often 


160  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

think  that  all  the  difficulties  we  encounter  only  give 
us  the  more  strength  if  we  keep  hold  of  our  work, 
and  we  must  not  now  give  up  while  in  the  prime  of 
life.  It  is  best  to  keep  trying,  and  by  and  by  the 
opportunity  will  come.  If  we  have  given  up,  then 
we  shall  not  be  ready  for  it  when  it  does  come." 

To  others  she  sent  such  cheering  messages  as 
these : 

"I  do  not  see  why  you  should  give  up.  What  if 
you  get  only  three  afternoons  in  the  month  to  work ; 
is  that  not  something?  If  I  have  an  expectation  of 
hearing  from  you  once  a  month,  will  not  that  be  a 
help?  It  is  only  two  months  more,  and  it  seems 
a  pity  to  quite  give  up.  You  know  our  society  is 
for  just  such  people,  to  give  what  aid  and  sympathy 
is  required." 

"We  never  can  tell  how  our  lives  may  work  to 
the  account  of  the  general  good,  and  we  are  not  wise 
enough  to  know  if  we  have  fulfilled  our  mission  or 
not.  How  do  you  know  that  your  unsatisfied  long- 
ings may  not  be  so  transmuted  in  your  little  daugh- 
ter as  to  make  her  a  pioneer  or  a  leader  in  some 
great  work  for  the  good  of  mankind?  If  you  had 
had  all  you  wanted,  you  could  not  have  given  her 
the  wish,  the  strength  perhaps,  to  be  what  she  may 
be  now.  Most  heroes  and  heroines  have  sprung  from 
such  homes  as  yours.  I  have  just  been  reading 
Besant's  'Inner  House,'  and  I  have  been  especially 


TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE   161 

struck  with  the  thought  there  brought  out  that  all 
progress  and  even  all  enjoyment  is  dependent  upon 
the  frailty  of  human  life  and  human  desires — that 
if  we  were  to  have  all  we  want  and  to  live  forever, 
all  enjoyment  would  be  gone." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  this  work  was  carried 
on  without  a  stenographer.  The  mere  physical  effort 
must  have  been  a  severe  drain  upon  her  strength, 
but  there  is  no  suggestion  that  explanation  or  advice 
was  ever  curtailed  to  save  herself. 

In  looking  over  Mrs.  Richards's  papers  I  contin- 
ually found  references  to  people  living  in  regions 
remote  from  Boston,  in  Canada  and  the  far  West, 
some  of  them  in  isolated  mountain  regions  or  on 
ranches,  and  I  wondered  what  had  brought  them  to 
her  acquaintance.  Many  of  them  proved  to  be 
friends  whom  she  had  made  on  the  trips  taken  with 
Professor  Richards  in  connection  with  his  engineer- 
ing work,  but  a  surprisingly  large  number  proved 
to  be  students  in  Studies  at  Home.  In  a  majority 
of  the  cases,  the  friendships  thus  started  were  kept 
up,  and  Mrs.  Richards  did  much  to  cement  them  by 
seeking  out  her  former  pupils  as  she  traveled  from 
place  to  place. 

Miss  Margaret  Sheppard,  of  Philadelphia,  who 
came  to  be  an  intimate  friend,  writes:  "For  nearly 
eight  years  it  was  my  privilege  to  be  an  instructor 
in  the  Society  for  Home  Study,  with  Mrs.  Richards 


162  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

as  my  chief.  Warmly  interested,  from  its  start,  in 
the  success  of  the  society,  it  was  wonderful  how, 
amid  her  many  claims,  she  made  time  to  put  so  much 
of  herself  into  its  work.  The  teachers  under  her 
found  her  an  ever-ready  helper,  and  the  student's 
problems  she  made  her  own.  The  Boston  girl  who 
discovered  crinoid  stems  in  the  marble  mantel  de- 
lighted her ;  and  she  was  equally  interested  in  the 
woman  on  a  farm  who  propped  her  book  open  to 
study  while  scrubbing  the  floor. 

"At  that  time  I  had  pupils  also  in  a  Philadel- 
phia Society  for  Home  Culture  which  admitted 
young  men  to  its  ranks.  One  of  these,  a  Western 
farmer  with  unique  experiences,  strongly  attracted 
Mrs.  Richards,  and  frequently  when  we  met  she  would 
ask,  'How  is  A  No.  1?'  Once  when  I  was  at  a  loss 
how  to  give  this  youth  the  instruction  in  blowpipe 
work  which  he  desired,  she  generously  wrote  nearly 
six  pages  of  diagrams  and  explanations,  showing 
where  the  flame  was  hottest  and  how  the  blowpipe 
could  be  used  to  best  advantage." 

But  the  joy  that  was  brought  into  homes  by  means 
of  the  teaching  of  science  or  of  nature  study,  if  you 
will,  was  not  confined  to  the  older  people.  In  1881 
a  student  wrote:  "I  find  the  little  I  have  learned  a 
great  delight  to  the  children,  twelve,  six,  and  three 
years  of  age.  The  six-year-old  boy  pores  over  the 
specimens  with  the  glass,  and  often  insists  upon  my 
leaving  my  work  to  'come  and  see  this  remarkable 
thing  God  has  made.'" 


TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE   163 

In  many  cases  the  students  were  "  shut-ins. "  One 
of  these,  writing  to  Mrs.  Richards,  said:  "I  am 
grateful  for  your  kind,  interesting  letter  received  a 
few  days  ago.  I  will  try  to  give  you  some  idea  of 
my  life  as  you  wish.  ...  I  have  been  an  invalid,  con- 
fined to  the  house  a  greater  part  of  the  time,  for  nine 
years.  I  do  not  go  out  at  all  through  the  winter, 
but  am  able  to  go  around  the  yard  and  fields  some 
of  the  time  through  the  summer." 

As  time  went  on,  the  same  difficulty  arose  in  con- 
nection with  the  Society  to  Encourage  Studies  at 
Home  that  had  arisen  in  connection  with  the  higher 
education  of  women.  Few  were  able  to  do  continu- 
ous work,  and  excuses  on  the  ground  of  ill  health 
came  with  almost  every  letter.  This  troubled  every 
one  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  society,  and  the 
result  was  the  publication  of  a  carefully  prepared 
tract  on  Health,  which,  though  it  does  not  bear 
Mrs.  Richards's  name,  was  written  by  her.  Those 
who  were  connected  with  the  earlier  work  of  the 
society  say  that  this  tract,  as  it  left  her  hands,  was 
much  more  extended  and  much  more  plainspoken 
than  it  was  when  it  finally  appeared.  While  it  may 
not,  therefore,  have  been  in  its  completed  form  all 
that  she  would  have  had  it,  it  carried  helpful  sug- 
gestions and  valuable  advice  to  thousands  of  homes. 
It  was  sent  to  every  student  who  was  enrolled,  and 
had  a  somewhat  extended  sale  outside  of  the  society. 
It  treated  not  only  of  the  external  conditions  for 


164  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

right  living,  of  fresh  air,  sunlight,  good  food,  and 
healthful  dress,  but  also,  and  in  a  way  which  was 
much  in  advance  of  the  times,  of  certain  mental  con- 
ditions affecting  health,  as  the  following  extracts 
show : 

"By  nature  the  nervous  organization  of  women, 
particularly  of  American  women,  is  more  sensitive 
than  that  of  men,  and  many  things  in  the  present 
system  of  education  and  of  living  tend  to  make  it 
still  more  so. 

"Contrast  the  lives  of  schoolgirls  and  schoolboys 
out  of  school  hours.  A  boy,  not  only  by  his  own 
instinct,  but  by  command  of  those  who  wish  to  get 
rid  of  his  restless  presence  in  the  house,  is  out  of 
doors  every  free  moment,  and  usually  in  active 
motion.  A  girl,  after  school  is  over,  is  apt  to  be 
told,  'You  must  have  some  exercise,  I  suppose,  so  go 
now  and  take  a  walk,  but  do  not  be  gone  long;  and 
remember  you  have  an  hour's  practicing  to  do,  and 
then  you  must  work  on  the  trimming  for  your  dress, 
or  it  will  not  be  finished  in  time.'  The  girl  naturally 
returns  to  her  lessons  with  nerves  a  little  more  weary 
than  when  she  left  them. 

"After  school  days  are  over,  the  girls,  whom  the 
present  system  of  education,  culminating  in  public 
exhibition  and  competition,  has  left  to  suffer  from 
reaction,  find  no  natural  connection  between  their 
school  life  and  the  new  one  on  which  they  enter,  and 
are  apt  to  be  aimless,  if  not  listless,  needing  external 


TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE   165 

stimulus,  and  finding  it  only  prepared  for  them,  it 
may  be,  in  some  form  of  social  excitement. 

"Schoolgirls,  then,  need  out-of-door  life;  girls 
after  leaving  school  need  intellectual  interests,  well 
regulated  and  not  encroaching  on  home  duties.  'We 
must  suppress  the  inordinate  desire  for  acquiring 
knowledge  from  books  and  schools  in  infancy  and 
childhood,  and  stimulate  those  who  have  passed  their 
youth  to  apply  themselves  with  great  vigor  to  mental 
improvement.' 

"There  are  women  in  middle  life,  whose  days  are 
crowded  with  practical  duties,  physical  strain,  and 
moral  responsibility,  who  need  this  last  injunction; 
for  they  fail  to  see  that  some  use  of  the  mind,  in 
solid  reading  or  in  study,  would  refresh  them  by  its 
contrast  with  carking  cares,  and  would  prepare 
interest  and  pleasure  for  their  later  years.  Such 
women  often  sink  into  depression,  as  their  cares  fall 
away  from  them,  and  many  even  become  insane. 
They  are  mentally  starved  to  death. 

"There  is  still  an  extremely  important  division  of 
the  subject  to  be  touched  upon,"  she  said  toward 
the  close.  "This  is  the  study  and  acceptance  of 
personal  limitations.  For  want  of  this  grasp  of 
one's  individual  situation,  many  a  life  is  wasted.  By 
a  quiet  and  sensible  appreciation  of  it,  man}7  feeble 
lives  and  narrow  abilities  have  been  made  useful, 
some  even  distinguished.  ...  A  mistaken  view  of 


166  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

duty  is  also  to  be  guarded  against.  It  is  cowardly 
to  fly  from  natural  duties  and  take  up  those  that 
suit  our  taste  or  temperament  better;  but  it  is  also 
unwise  to  take  an  exaggerated  view  of  personal 
duties,  which  shuts  out  the  proper  care  of  the  mind 
and  body  entrusted  to  us. 

"Lest  these  remarks  sound  vague,  let  us  illustrate 
them:  A  woman,  busy  with  the  cares  of  her  family, 
fails  to  study  and  to  place  at  their  true  value  her 
duties  to  her  mind  as  well  as  to  her  body  and  to 
her  household.  She  makes  no  mental  progress  as  the 
years  go  on,  loses  the  power  of  companionship  with 
her  children,  grows  discontented  and  fretful,  and 
passes  the  last  years  of  her  life  in  dull,  ignorant 
unhappiness.  Had  she  seen  the  limitations  and  laws 
of  her  physical  and  mental  nature,  she  would  have 
known  that  it  was  not  selfish  to  snatch  a  half-hour 
every  day  for  the  refreshment  of  her  mind  in  a 
botanizing  walk,  or  a  quiet  time  for  thinking  in  the 
open  air,  or  to  lock  her  chamber  door  while  she  read 
two  or  three  pages  of  a  good  author.  .  .  . 

"In  short,  if  we  would  be  and  do  all  that  as  a 
rational  being  we  should  desire,  we  must  resolve  to 
govern  ourselves ;  we  must  seek  diversity  of  interests ; 
dread  to  be  without  an  object  and  without  mental 
occupation;  and  try  to  balance  work  for  the  body 
and  work  for  the  mind." 

In  1886  a  new  section,  Sanitary  Science,  was 
established  in  the  society.  The  plan  of  this  course 


TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE   167 

was  an  original  idea  with  Mrs.  Richards.  It  was 
at  a  time  when  household  conveniences  employing 
water,  gas,  or  electricity  were  becoming  general,  but 
housekeepers  seldom  understood  what  dangers  and 
difficulties  attended  the  ignorant  use  of  the  new 
arrangements.  She  saw  that  instruction  was  needed, 
and  was  glad  to  make  the  society  a  means  to  that  end 
and  to  spread  abroad  knowledge  of  the  possibilities  of 
organizing  the  house  on  truly  scientific  principles. 
The  subject  at  once  aroused  .great  enthusiasm.  A 
student  wrote  that  she  found  it  so  full  of  interest 
that  she  dropped  all  other  studies  in  order  to  devote 
herself  to  Sanitary  Science  in  its  most  practical 
applications.  Another,  already  at  work  along  these 
lines  in  her  home  city,  found  books  recommended  by 
her  correspondent  of  greatest  help  in  her  study 
groups  organized  in  every  ward  of  her  city.  Many 
other  students  became  centers  from  which  started 
widening  circles  of  intelligent  interest  in  right  living. 
If  we  were  to  try  to  sum  up  Mrs.  Richards's  con- 
tributions to  the  society,  we  should  find  included 
not  only  her  work  of  planning  and  teaching,  and 
her  unmeasured  and  immeasurable  acts  of  kindness 
to  individual  students,  but  also  wise  advice  given  as 
a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  society.  -  Here  she  always  insisted  on  high 
standards  of  work.  "It  seems  to  me,"  she  said  to  a 
fellow-instructor,  "that  influence  which  is  exerted 
in  so  many  centers  ought  to  be  the  best  possible.  We 


168  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

ought  to  be  scientific  in  our  methods,  and  we  ought 
to  require  scientific  execution  on  the  part  of  students. 
I  am  now  ready  to  make  more  strict  plans.  My  stu- 
dents have  shown  themselves  capable  of  good  work, 
work  of  which  I  am  not  ashamed.  Shall  we  not 
endeavor  to  bring  our  standards  a  little  higher?"' 

It  was  through  her  advice  that  the  work  of  the 
society  was  so  modified  and  extended  as  to  make  it 
meet  the  needs  of  college  graduates.  In  1883,  when 
the  recently  organized  Association  of  Collegiate 
Alumnae  was  endeavoring  to  promote  graduate  study 
among  its  members,  there  were  few  opportunities  for 
such  study  in  the  colleges  themserves,  and  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards laid  before  the  association  a  plan  for  inducing 
alumnse  to  join  the  Society  for  Encouraging  Studies 
at  Home;  to  the  society  itself  she  proposed  certain 
changes  in  the  routine  of  its  work  which  would  adapt 
it  better  to  this  purpose.  As  a  result,  a  Correspond- 
ence University  was  started  in  connection  with  the 
society.  This  soon  passed  beyond  its  usefulness 
because  of  enlarging  opportunities  offered  by  uni- 
versities, but  for  a  time  it  met  a  great  need. 

At  every  step  in  the  work,  whether  it  involved  a 
change  in  methods  of  teaching  or  the  adoption  of 
a  new  text-book,  Mrs.  Richards  consulted  the  very 
best  authorities  on  the  subject  in  the  country.  In 
her  own  work  on  minerals  she  was  in  constant  corre- 
spondence with  Richard  H.  Dana,  the  geologist.  No 
opportunity  to  gain  information  was  ever  lost.  The 


TEACHING  BY  CORRESPONDENCE   169 

woman  who  wrote  to  her  from  Germany  to  know  of 
the  work  of  the  society  received  abundant  assistance, 
but  she  must  have  soon  become  aware  that  she  had 
entered  into  correspondence  with  a  woman  as  eager 
for  information  as  herself,  for  Mrs.  Richards  plied 
her  with  questions  concerning  the  conditions  of 
correspondence  work  in  her  own  country. 

In  1893,  when  Mrs.  Richards  had  charge  of  the 
Rumford  Kitchen  at  the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago, 
she  accepted  the  added  work  and  responsibility  of 
arranging  an  exhibition  of  the  work  of  Studies  at 
Home.  "Your  letter  came  this  morning,"  wrote 
Miss  Ticknor  on  September  5,  1893,  "and  I  look 
with  awe  at  nil  your  preparations  and  the  work  be- 
fore you  at  Chicago.  It  is  fine  that  you  can  accom- 
plish so  much  and  so  serenely.  The  work  of  S.  H. 
goes  on  well,  but  we  do  not  feel  quite  made  up  and 
shall  not  until  you  come  back." 

But  work  and  workers  always  react,  one  upon  the 
other,  and  as  I  have  studied  Mrs.  Richards's  connec- 
tion with  this  correspondence  work,  it  has  been  with 
a  growing  sense  of  its  important  bearing  upon  her 
own  later  activities.  For  many  years  after  she  left 
home  to  attend  college,  her  life  was  spent  chiefly  in 
academic  institutions  and  among  highly  educated 
people.  To  a  certain  extent  it  had  tended  to  shut 
out  the  problems  of  the  cvery-day  life  with  which  the 
great  masses  of  the  people  were  struggling.  Her 
teaching  by  correspondence  doubtless  served  to  bring 


170  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

before  her  in  very  vivid  manner  the  needs  of  the 
average  home.  May  it  not  be  that  in  Studies  at 
Home  lay  the  foundation  of  her  great  work  of  later 
years  ? 


CHAPTER  X 

BEGINNINGS    OF    EUTHENICS 

CONVICTION  that  the  world  was  full  of  unneces- 
sary sickness,  and  that  men  and  women  were  falling 
far  short  of  the  joy  of  living  and  of  doing  which 
ought  to  be  theirs,  grew  upon  Mrs.  Richards  with 
her  experiences  in  the  Woman's  Laboratory  and 
with  her  insight  through  correspondence  into  tho 
home  life  of  America.  With  the  conviction  came  the 
desire  to  have  a  part  in  removing  this  deplorable 
handicap.  "  We  must  see  to  that,"  she  once  wrote  in 
her  diary,  after  recording  a  grievous  social  injustice 
which  had  been  brought  to  her  attention.  "See  to 
it"  she  did  in  the  matter  of  preventable  disease,  for 
from  the  moment  of  her  own  conviction  she  labored 
unceasingly  wherever  and  with  whomsoever  she  saw 
an  opportunity  to  improve  the  material  conditions 
of  living.  She  came  in  the  course  of  time  to  be 
prominently  identified  with  the  Home  Economics 
movement.  But  this  was  only  part  of  the  great,  ab- 
sorbing interest  of  her  life,  which  included  the  bet- 
tering of  conditions  in  the  community,  in  the  school, 
and  in  the  factory,  as  well  as  in  the  home.  This 
larger  and  more  inclusive  interest,  though  neither 

171 


172  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

named  nor  defined  by  her  until  shortly  before  her 
death,  early  took  full  possession  of  her  powers,  and 
the  last  thirty  years  of  her  life  were  given  to  devel- 
oping the  "science  of  controllable  environment,"  for 
which  she  coined  the  name  "Euthenics." 

Her  preparation  for  leadership  in  this  work  had 
been  begun  in  the  careful  training  that  she  received 
from  her  mother  in  the  household  arts.  This  physi- 
cal education  she  considered  an  essential  element  in 
the  control  of  external  things,  and  repeatedly  dur- 
ing her  later  life  she  attributed  the  failure  of  individ- 
uals to  reach  their  highest  efficiency  to  the  fact  that 
they  had  not  received  in  early  life  the  necessary 
muscle  training.  In  speaking  of  college  women  who, 
when  they  become  housekeepers,  expect  that  tasks 
involving  manual  dexterity  will  come  easy  to  them 
because  of  what  they  consider  their  comprehensive 
preparation  for  life,  she  said:  "The  head  can  save 
the  heels  only  when  the  heels  have  had  practice 
young  and  remember  without  telling  what  to  do  at 
the  slightest  hint.  In  other  words,  housework  is  a 
trade  to  be  prepared  for  by  manual  exercise,  as 
housekeeping  is  a  profession  to  be  prepared  for  by 
mental  exercise."  Again  she  said  in  connection  with 
an  abortive  attempt  to  train  educated  and  intelli- 
gent but  inexperienced  women  as  "Household  Aids," 
and  thus  to  dignify  domestic  service,  "Intelligence 
did  not  make  up  for  lack  of  early  muscle  training." 

As  a  result  of  the  great  importance  which  she  at- 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         173 

tached  to  the  early  education  of  the  hand,  she  be- 
came one  of  the  first  advocates  of  manual  training 
in  the  public  schools,  and  throughout  her  life  she 
was  interested,  not  only  in  the  introduction  of  such 
work,  but  in  the  improvement  of  its  methods  and  in 
its  adjustment  to  other  departments  of  school  work. 
As  early  as  1881,  when  the  Associated  Charities  of 
Boston  was  urging  the  introduction  of  manual  train- 
ing into  the  schools,  its  secretary  submitted  to  her  a 
list  of  questions.  These  questions  and  her  unequiv- 
ocal and  farseeing  answers  follow : 

Question.  When  should  industrial  education  begin  ? 
Answer.  As  early  as  anything  is  taught.  Children 
are  always  eager  to  do  something.  The  girl  of  four 
or  five  years  tries  to  cut  out  her  dolFs  clothes  or 
to  do  anything  that  she  sees  done.  The  boy  of  the 
same  age  is  always  eager  for  a  jackknife  and  a 
hammer.  It  would  seem  as  if  Nature  pointed  the 
way  in  this  instinct  to  use  the  hands  first.  It  is 
cruelty  to  children  to  keep  five-year-olds  sitting  still, 
gazing  into  vacancy  even  for  one  hour  at  a  time. 
We  have  little  idea  of  the  torture  we  thus  inflict. 

Question.  With  what  methods,  the  "Russian"  or 
a  more  direct  plan?  Answer.  The  principle  of  the 
Russian  method,  to  use  whatever  will  train  the  hand 
and  eye  without  regard  to  the  product,  seems  to  be 
the  only  one  adapted  to  children  from  five  to  ten 
years  of  age.  No  finished  product  can  be  expected 
from  the  little  hands,  and  they  should  be  allowed 


174  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

free  scope,  not  scolded  and  punished  because  they 
spoil  the  material.  Do  not  older  people  learn  most 
by  their  mistakes?  Hence  the  end  of  first  instruc- 
tion should  be  the  child's  own  improvement  regard- 
less of  the  material  used.  After  these  four  or  five 
years  of  training,  particular  branches  may  well  be 
taught.  Experience  only  can  answer  just  when  this 
teaching  can  best  begin,  for  in  the  first  step  in 
manual  training  the  work  must  be  subordinate  to  the 
child. 

Question.  Might  not  some  of  the  more  purely 
scholastic  studies  be  profitably  eliminated  in  favor 
of  eye  and  hand  training?  Answer.  At  first  they 
may  need  to  be  at  least  postponed,  but  it  is  my  firm 
conviction  that  the  industrial  training  from  five  to 
ten  years  of  age  will  so  quicken  the  powers  of  body 
and  mind  that  the  studies  now  deemed  irksome  will 
be  carried  on  with  great  ease  and  pleasure  in  con- 
junction with  manual  exercises. 

Question.  Would  a  supplementary  course  be  de- 
sirable, or  should  it  be  a  part  of  the  regular  course? 
Answer.  I  believe  that  it  should  form  an  essential 
part  of  the  regular  course.  This  is  the  view  from 
a  purely  educational  standpoint,  without  consider- 
ing the  trouble  of  moving  the  present  elaborate 
structure  of  our  schools.  A  supplementary  course 
may  be  the  wiser  plan  to  begin;  it  would  be  wiser 
than  none. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         175 

This  earnest  plea  for  the  training  which  enables 
the  body  to  do  the  bidding  of  the  mind,  and  which 
tends  to  bring  it  under  subjection  to  the  will,  was 
in  line  with  her  steadfast  belief  that  education 
should  make  man  master  of  his  environment.  But 
she  urged  also,  and  from  the  very  first  of  her  inter- 
est in  schools,  that  scientific  education  which  teaches 
how  natural  forces  may  be  directed  toward  chosen 
ends  was  also  essential  to  the  control  of  material 
things*  This  conviction  had  its  beginning,  no  doubt, 
in  the  instruction  which  she  received  at  Vassar  under 
Professor  Farrar.  Hardly  a  week  of  her  college  life 
passed  when  she  did  not  record  some  interesting 
connection  which  she  had  discovered  between  the 
facts  and  discoveries  of  science  and  the  phenomena 
and  problems  of  common  life. 

One  letter  showed  that  she  had  discovered  why 
fresh  bread  was  indigestible,  and  another  why  it  is 
possible  to  beat  the  whites  of  eggs  into  a  foam.  The 
lectures  on  air,  too,  found  an  appreciative  listener. 
"Professor  Farrar  has  been  telling  us  some  interest- 
ing and  startling  facts  with  reference  to  air  and  the 
subject  of  ventilation.  .  .  .  He  had  a  bedroom  with 
glass  sides  about  three  feet  high  and  wide,  in  which 
he  put  six  people  to  bed  (six  wax  tapers  at  different 
heights),  one  in  a  trundle  bed  near  the  floor,  another 
a  little  higher,  and  so  on,  up  to  a  high  bed  near 
the  ceiling.  He  shut  all  the  windows  to  keep  out  the 
night  air.  They  lived  from  one-half  to  one  minute. 


176  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Then  he  opened  the  windows  at  the  top,  as  people 
generally  do,  and  they  lived  only  a  minute  at  the 
bottom,  though  the  highest  ones  lived  some  time 
longer.  Again  he  shut  the  top  windows  and  opened 
the  bottom;  about  the  same  result,  only  the  lower 
one  lived  longest.  With  a  current  of  air  from  top  to 
bottom,  all  lived  indefinitely. 

"Consumption  is  the  result  of  the  tight  building 
of  the  present  day.  We  should  all  die  if  people  could 
succeed  as  they  wish.  A  fireplace  is  better  than  life 
insurance.  .  .  .  Dr.  Bell,  of  Boston,  found  that  every 
one  of  the  people  in  Massachusetts  who  was  over  one 
hundred  years  old  was  brought  up  in  an  open  fire- 
place. (When  the  girls  laughed,  Professor  Farrar 
said  he  could  say  so,  for  the  favorite  corner  of  the 
children  used  to  be  in  the  chimney  corner,  where  they 
could  study  astronomy.)" 

But  even  more  important  than  this  awakened 
interest  in  the  relation  of  science  to  practical  affairs 
was  a  realization  of  the  possibility  of  controlling 
external  conditions  in  a  large  way  and  for  the  benefit 
of  all  the  people.  This  came  a  little  later  through 
the  analytical  work  which  she  did  upon  air  and  food 
for  the  State  Board  of  Health.  The  chain  was  now 
nearly  complete;  she  was  almost  ready  to  set  forth 
as  teacher  and  preacher.  Toward  this  end  the  con- 
stant challenge  which  came  to  her  from  friends  and 
associates  to  prove  the  value  of  the  knowledge  which 
she  was  accumulating  may  have  contributed.  About 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         177 

two  years  after  she  entered  the  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, her  old  friend  and  teacher  at  Westford 
Academy,  Mr.  Addison  Smith,  wrote:  "I  suppose 
you  are  at  work  in  the  dirt  yet"  (referring  doubt- 
less to  her  mineralogical  work).  "You  will  turn  out 
a  professor  of  dust  and  ashes,  I  presume,  and  be 
glad  some  time  to  accept  an  offer  to  keep  some  old 
widower's  premises  clean  with  the  aid  of  a  broom, 
dustpan,  mop,  etc.  Then  you  can  analyze  the 
contents  of  the  dustpan  and  be  able  to  solve  some 
problem  in  the  chemistry  of  cuisine."  The  follow- 
ing year  he  wrote:  "Haven't  you  nearly  learned 
out?  Can  you  analyze  a  loaf  of  bread  yet?  I  bet 
you  can't  make  a  good  loaf."  Of  course  the  joke 
was  the  other  way,  for  she  was  an  efficient  house- 
keeper as  well  as  a  chemist,  and  the  only  effect  on 
her  of  these  pleasantries  was  to  make  her  search 
more  deeply  for  the  connection  between  the  facts 
of  science  and  the  needs  of  life. 

The  time  had,  in  fact,  come  when  neither  more 
knowledge  nor  a  clearer  understanding  of  conditions 
was  necessary  to  her  preparation  for  leadership,  but 
a  motive  strong  enough  to  compel  her  to  formulate 
her  own  ideas  and  plans.  This  came  in  the  winter 
of  1879,  when  Maria  Mitchell  invited  her  to  give 
an  address  before  the  women  of  Poughkeepsie  on 
"Chemistry  in  Relation  to  Household  Economy." 
The  address  was  delivered  before  three  hundred 
women  in  March  of  that  year,  and  so  successfully 


178  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

that  Maria  Mitchell  used  often  to  say,  "I  discov- 
ered Mrs.  Richards."  The  following  is  the  sub- 
stance of  this  lecture,  which  though  given  more 
than  thirty  years  ago  might  have  been  acceptably 
given  yesterday: 

"It  may  interest  some  of  your  number,  those  who 
like  to  follow  out  the  evolution  of  thought,  to  know 
how  and  why  this  idea  of  the  application  of  science 
in  general,  and  chemistry  in  particular,  came  to  take 
so  strong  a  hold  upon  my  mind.  You  will  see  that, 
as  is  often  the  case,  it  was  partly  due  to  contrari- 
ness. We  often  overlook  the  bearing  of  our  work 
until  some  one  who  does  not  believe  in  it  shows  us 
how  much  we  might  do.  One  day  some  one  said  to 
me,  'What  good  do  you  expect  this  will  do  in  the 
kitchen?'  I  have  never  succeeded  in  banishing  the 
ring  of  that  question  from  my  ears.  Indeed,  it  has 
been  repeated  in  other  forms  so  many  times  since 
that  I  have  had  little  opportunity  to  forget. 

"A  few  weeks  since,  the  door  of  the  laboratory 
opened  to  admit  two  women  a  little  past  middle  life, 
though  not  old.  They  came  in  with  wondering  looks, 
as  they  saw  several  young  women  at  work  in  the 
room.  ...  I  attempted  to  satisfy  their  curiosity  by 
speaking  of  those  who  studied  chemistry  for  the 
purpose  of  knowing  something  of  its  principles  and 
applications.  They  did  not  seem  to  understand  this 
motive,  and  I  proceeded  to  tell  them  of  the  teachers 
who  were  now  required  to  teach  science  and  who 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         179 

must  learn  laboratory  work  in  order  to  secure  better 
salaries.  This  fact  appealed  to  them  somewhat,  but 
one  immediately  asked,  'What  good  is  it  going  to  do 
for  domestic  women?'  To  this  question,  which  doubt- 
less comes  first  to  many  when  the  subject  of  scientific 
teaching  for  girls  is  discussed,  'What  good  will  it 
do  for  domestic  women?'  I  shall  try  to  suggest  an 
answer,  at  least  in  part. 

"Now  it  is  often  stated  that  our  educational  sys- 
tem unfits  the  girls  for  their  work  in  life,  which  is 
largely  that  of  housekeepers.  It  cannot  be  the 
knowledge  which  unfits  them.  One  can  never  know 
too  much  of  things  which  one  is  to  handle.  Can  a 
railroad  engineer  know  too  much  about  the  parts 
of  his  engine?  Can  the  cotton  manufacturer  know 
too  much  about  cotton  fiber?  Can  a  cook  know  too 
much  about  the  composition  and  nutritive  value  of 
the  meats  and  vegetables  which  she  uses?  Can  a 
housekeeper  know  too  much  of  the  effect  of  fresh  air 
on  the  human  system,  of  the  danger  of  sewer  gas, 
of  foul  water? 

"It  cannot  be  the  knowledge  of  things  which  unfits 
the  youth  to  handle  the  things  themselves.  It  must 
be  that  some  sort  of  false  logic  has  crept  into  our 
schools,  for  the  people  whom  I  have  seen  doing  house- 
work or  cooking  know  nothing  of  botany  or  chemis- 
try, and  the  people  who  know  botany  and  chemistry 
do  not  cook  or  sweep.  The  conclusion  seems  to  be, 
if  one  knows  chemistry  she  must  not  cook  or  do 
housework. 


180  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

"If  we  look  narrowly  at  the  teaching  of  botany 
and  chemistry  and  the  other  so-called  natural  sci- 
ences in  most  of  our  public  schools,  we  may  wonder 
less  that  this  reasoning  has  gained  a  foothold. 
(Then  follows  an  arraignment  of  the  schools  for  not 
teaching  the  application  of  the  sciences.) 

"Scientific  facts  are  taught,  to  be  sure,  but  in  just 
the  same  way  and  often  by  the  same  teachers  as 
historical  facts  are  taught.  Girls,  and  boys  too,  may 
learn  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  soluble  oxalate 
of  iron,  without  learning  that  because  ink  contains 
iron,  oxalic  acid  will  therefore  form  a  soluble  com- 
pound with  ink  stains.  The  trouble  lies  in  the  lack 
of  actual  knowledge  of  things,  and  the  attempt  to 
supply  this  lack  by  certain  theoretical  ideas  which 
have  no  more  relation  to  every-day  life  than  the  wars 
of  the  Crusaders  now  have. 

"Girls  may  learn  that  rice  is  a  carbohydrate,  and 
that  peas  and  beans  are  not  only  carbohydrates  but 
also  albuminoids,  without  learning  the  connection  of 
these  facts  with  every-day  life.  The  best  authorities 
who  have  studied  the  nutritive  value  of  various  foods 
state  that  a  strong  working  man  requires,  per  day, 
420  grams  of  carbohydrates  to  keep  up  the  animal 
heat  and  120  grams  of  albuminoids  to  repair  the 
waste  of  tissue.  Two  pounds  of  peas  or  beans  will 
much  more  than  furnish  these  constituents  at  a  cost 
of  about  ten  cents  at  ordinary  prices.  Six  or  seven 
eggs  and  one  pound  of  rice  will  come  near  furnish- 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         181 

ing  both,  but  at  an  average  cost  of  fourteen  cents 
to  twenty-one  cents.  Three-quarters  of  a  pound  of 
cheese  will  give  the  albuminoids  at  a  cost  of,  say 
eighteen  cents.  Four  pounds  of  potatoes  will  give 
the  starch,  but  twenty-five  pounds  of  potatoes  will 
be  required  for  the  albuminoids.  Hence  potatoes  are 
very  insufficient  for  nutrition  and  also  very  costly, 
from  twenty-five  to  fifty  cents'  worth  giving  only  the 
value  of  ten  cents'  worth  of  beans.  Is  this  sort  of 
science  of  no  value  to  the  girl  who  is  to  be  a  house- 
keeper? Does  it  not  aid  in  impressing  on  her  mind 
all  the  other  more  abstract  truths?  The  true  value 
of  science  teaching,  the  knowing  for  certainty,  the 
investigation  for  one's  self,  in  contrast  to  mere  belief 
or  blind  acceptance  of  statements,  is  missed  in  much 
popular  teaching. 

^"We  must  awaken  a  spirit  of  investigation  in  our 
girls,  as  it  is  often  awakened  in  our  boys,  but  al- 
ways, I  think,  in  spite  of  the  school  training.  We 
must  show  to  the  girls  who  are  studying  science  in 
our  schools  that  it  has  a  very  close  relation  to  our 
every-day  life.  We  must  train  them  by  it  to  judge 
for  themselves,  and  not  to  do  everything  just  as  their 
grandmothers  did,  just  because  their  grandmothers 

did  it 

, .  "But  you  are  asking,  what  has  all  this  to  do  with 
domestic  economy?  Everything,  I  answer,  because 
if  you  train  the  young  housekeeper  to  think,  to 
reason,  from  the  known  facts  to  the  unknown  results, 


182  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

she  will  not  only  make  a  better  housekeeper,  but  she 
will  be  a  more  contented  one;  she  will  find  a  field 
wide  enough  for  all  her  abilities  and  a  field  almost 
unoccupied.  The  zest  of  intelligent  experiment  will 
add  a  great  charm  to  the  otherwise  monotonous 
duties  of  housekeeping. 

"So  much  for  the  educational  side  of  the  question. 
We  must  now  consider  the  field  itself.  You  will  at 
once  call  to  mind  the  great  advance  in  the  few  years 
past  in  all  mechanical  devices  which  render  travel 
comfortable,  communication  easy  and  rapid ;  also  the 
great  advance  in  metallurgy,  which  has  given  us 
Bessemer  iron  or  steel,  and  rendered  much  possible 
that  before  seemed  impossible.  Chemistry  has  given 
us  new  fabrics,  new  dyes,  and  has  been  the  right 
hand  of  metallurgy. 

"We  must  say  that  of  the  improvements  that 
affect  our  daily  life,  the  most  result  from  the  appli- 
cations of  mechanics  and  chemistry.  Now  let  us 
consider  how  much  these  have  contributed  to  house- 
hold economy.  We  have  our  carpet  sweepers,  knife 
scourers,  clothes  wringers,  too  often,  alas,  rendered 
almost  useless  by  the  ignorance  of  those  into  whose 
hands  we  put  them;  we  have  sewing  machines  and 
their  accessories. 

"Where  are  the  fruits  of  chemical  science?  In 
self-raising  flour,  in  bread  powders,  in  washing 
powders,  in  glove  cleaners,  and  in  a  hundred  patent 
nostrums ;  but  where  are  the  substantial  advantages 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         183 

commensurate  with  the  improvements  in  manufac- 
turing establishments  and  metallurgical  works?  Is 
housekeeping  any  easier,  any  more  scientific,  than 
it  was  thirty  years  ago?  Our  cooking  is  proverbially 
bad.  The  ventilation  and  drainage  of  many  of  our 
houses  could  not  well  be  worse.  Why  is  it?  Why 
do  not  our  housekeepers  keep  pace  with  our  machine 
shops?  Why  do  we  notice  such  a  pleasant  contrast 
when  we  enter  the  wards  of  a  well-ordered  hospital? 
Why  has  not  the  knowledge  of  sanitary  laws  filtered 
down  through  the  community  as  rapidly  as  the  knowl- 
edge of  mechanical  laws  ?  Go  where  you  will  into  the 
country  and  you  will  find  the  sewing  machine  uni- 
versal, but  alas!  just  as  poor  bread,  just  as  much 
fried  pork,  just  the  same  open  sink  drain  under  the 
kitchen  window,  just  the  same  damp,  dark  cellar, 
just  as  much  fear  of  fresh  air,  as  you  would  have 
found  thirty  years  ago.  And  in  the  cities,  how  much 
better  is  it ;  rather,  how  much  worse?  The  architects 
have  learned  to  build  houses  with  fewer  cracks  to 
let  in  air,  with  furnaces  and  no  open  fires,  with  a 
sort  of  plumbing  system  peculiarly  sensitive  to  use. 

"If,  then,  we  grant,  as  we  must,  that  chemical 
and  sanitary  science  has  not  borne  its  due  fruits 
in  household  economy,  we  must  also  grant  that  it 
must  be  because  women  have  not,  as  yet,  availed 
themselves  of  its  possibilities. 

"There  is  no  place  into  which  chemistry  might 
not  be  profitably  introduced.  Let  us  consider  in 


184  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

what  respects  there  is  an  opening  for  improvement. 
Three  reasons  occur  to  me  why  science  should  be 
brought  into  household  affairs.  1st.  It  would  bene- 
fit health.  2d.  It  would  save  labor  and  the  wear  of 
material.  3d.  It  would  show  us  how  to  obtain  the 
most  for  our  money  of  the  staple  articles  of  daily 
consumption. 

"In  the  first  case,  a  fewr  words  will  suffice.  The 
housekeeper  is  the  one  person  who  visits  all  parts 
of  the  house  daily.  She  alone  is  in  a  position  to 
detect  the  first  trace  of  the  escape  of  sewer  gas, 
to  notice  the  neglected  corner  of  the  cellar,  to  test 
the  cream  of  tartar  if  the  biscuits  come  to  the  table 
yellow  and  alkaline,  and  she  should  know  enough  of 
science  to  do  all  this  and  more. 

"In  the  second  case,  the  saving  of  labor  and  wear 
of  material.  The  management  of  washing  is  the 
best  illustration.  If  we  go  into  any  grocery  and 
ask  for  a  cleaning  soap  or  washing  powder,  an  array 
of  perhaps  a  dozen  different  kinds  is  spread  before 
us,  each  kind  claiming  perfection.  The  cleaning  soap 
may  be  eighty  per  cent  firie  sand  pressed  into  a  cake 
with  sal-soda  (washing  soda).  The  washing  powders 
are  either  crude  soda  with  sometimes  a  pinch  of 
borax,  or  a  mixture  of  hard  soap  and  washing  soda. 
Some  of  the  latter  articles  are  very  white  hard  soap 
with  the  soda,  and  are  really  very  nice.  But  if  the 
laundress  reads  the  label  of  her  washing  powder  and 
finds  on  it  an  emphasized  caution  against  the  use 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         185 

of  sal-soda,  as  it  injures  the  clothing,  she  naturally 
concludes  that  this  powder  is  innocent  of  any  such 
harmful  property.  Hence  she  uses  it  with  unsparing 
hand,  to  the  detriment  of  her  washing. 

"The  third  case,  that  of  economy,  will  be  most 
readily  appreciated.  If  the  housekeeper  knows  that 
she  is  paying  twelve  or  fourteen  cents  a  pound  for 
brown  soap  and  sal-soda,  when  she  might  purchase 
the  same  things  for  four  or  five  cents,  will  she  go 
on  paying  double  price,  rather  than  take  a  little 
pains  to  instruct  her  servants  in  the  use  and  abuse 
of  sal-soda? 

"Perhaps  the  day  will  come  when  an  association 
of  housekeepers  will  be  formed  in  each  large  town 
or  city,  with  one  of  their  number  as  a  chemist.  Some 
similar  arrangement  would  be  far  more  effective  in 
checking  adulteration  than  a  dozen  acts  passed  by 
Congress. 

"The  power  of  chemical  knowledge  is  appreciated 
by  manufacturers.  They  take  advantage  of  every 
new  step  in  science.  The  housekeeper  must  know 
something  of  chemistry  in  self-defense.  If  the  dealer 
knows  that  his  articles  are  subjected  to  even  the 
simple  tests  possible  to  every  woman  at  the  head  of 
her  house,  he  would  be  far  more  careful  to  secure 
the  best  articles.  Then  the  housekeeper  should  know 
when  to  be  frightened. 

"What  an  economy  it  would  be  if  we  could  have 
our  houses  built  and  our  utensils  made  on  scientific 


186  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

principles.  If  women  in  general  understood  mechan- 
ical and  physical  laws,  would  they  long  endure  the 
present  style  of  architecture  found  even  in  the 
suburbs  of  Boston,  which  requires  the  coal  to  be 
shoveled  down  cellar  only  for  the  servants  to  bring 
up  again  to  the  kitchen  range,  and  necessitates  the 
carrying  of  the  ashes  down,  only  for  somebody  to 
bring  up  again?  Other  examples  will  occur  to  you, 
of  ways  in  which  labor  is  wasted  about  a  house  in  a 
manner  which  would  ruin  any  business  or  workshop. 
No  wonder  that  living  is  so  expensive.  Men  do  not 
often  think  about  these  things,  and  it  is  for  women 
to  institute  reforms. 

"If,  then,  science  introduced  into  our  houses  will 
enable  us  to  live  comfortably,  if  it  will  enable  us  to 
save  in  the  wear  and  tear  of  furniture,  to  avoid  great 
outlay  of  time  or  money  in  the  repair  of  inevitable 
damages,  to  save  cost  on  the  various  materials  of 
daily  use,  the  sum  of  these  savings  will  be  an  amount 
worth  considering  in  household  economy,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  improvement  in  the  comfort  and 
temper  of  both  mistress  and  maids. 

"The  first  question  that  will  occur  to  any  one 
will  be,  how  can  all  this  saving  be  accomplished? 
My  answer  is  the  proverbial  Yankee  one,  another 
question.  How  have  the  many  economies  in  the 
machine  shops  and  metallurgical  works  been  accom- 
plished? I  think  the  answer  to  the  last  question  will 
be:  first,  by  the  introduction  of  systematic  manage- 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         187 

ment  of  every  detail ;  second,  by  the  employment  of 
skilled  labor. 

"An  English  writer  recently  made  the  statement 
that  the  chief  reason  why  the  American  inventions 
were  coming  upon  the  world  with  such  startling 
rapidity  and  perfection  was  that  a  better  class  of 
workmen  are  at  co'mmand  here.  If  American  men 
have  been  able  by  their  perseverance,  energy,  and 
ingenuity  to  outstrip  the  world  in  the  management 
of  their  shops,  shall  American  women  be  less  success- 
ful in  the  management  of  their  houses? 

"It  is  not  an  easy  task  that  we  have  before  us. 
We  have  been  making  great  improvements  in  our 
front  halls,  drawing  rooms,  and  dining  rooms  within 
the  past  few  years,  but  we  have  not  yet  invaded  the 
kitchen  and  pantry.  We  must  have  the  careful  sys- 
tem and  the  skilled  labor  of  the  shop  in  our  kitchens 
before  we  can  have  the  beneficial  results  which  the 
shops  produce. 

"So  long  as  we  are  content  with  ignorance  in  our 
kitchens,  so  long  we  shall  have  ignorance;  but  when 
we  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  our  brothers  and  de- 
mand knowledge,  because  we  know  the  value  of  knowl- 
edge, then  we  shall  succeed  in  obtaining  skilled  labor 
as  they  have  succeeded;  and  let  it  not  be  said  that 
American  women  have  less  energy  and  perseverance 
in  their  department  than  American  men  have  shown 
in  their  business." 

This  was  the  first  of  hundreds,  I  might  almost  say 


188  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

thousands,  of  lectures  that  Mrs.  Richards  gave  dur- 
ing the  remaining  years  of  her  life.  It  has  special 
significance  for  this  reason,  and  also  because  it  shows 
how  clearly  she  foresaw,  back  in  the  year  1879,  the 
dangers  that  were  to  arise  from  the  adulterations 
of  food. 

•  Mrs.  Richards  was  firmly  convinced,  and  even 
more  firmly  as  time  went  on,  that  if  women  were 
finally  to  get  control  over  the  conditions  of  their 
own  lives,  a  beginning  must  be  made  in  childhood. 
She  interested  herself  actively,  therefore,  in  the  in- 
troduction of  science  instruction  in  the  public  schools 
of  Boston.  The  opportunity  to  do  this  came  through 
an  acquaintance  which  she  formed  in  the  course  of  the 
Studies  at  Home  work  with  Miss  Lucretia  Crocker. 
Miss  Crocker  was  one  of  the  first  women  to  be  elected 
a  member  of  the  Boston  School  Committee.  She  was 
elected  in  1875,  but  soon  afterward  resigned  to  be- 
come Supervisor  of  Schools.  As  we  have  seen,  she 
was  a  friend  of  Agassiz's  and  an  enthusiast  for  the 
introduction  of  Nature  Study  in  the  schools.  This 
enthusiasm  Mrs.  Richards  came  to  share.  At  a  time 
when  she  had  a  comparatively  large  amount  of 
leisure,  just  before  she  was  appointed  instructor 
in  Sanitary  Chemistry,  she  made  an  experiment  in 
teaching  mineralogy  to  public  school  children.  In 
this  she  cooperated  closely  with  Miss  Crocker. 
Mrs.  Richards  prepared  the  material  and  got  to- 
gether the  apparatus,  while  Miss  Crocker  made 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         189 

suggestions  from  her  pedagogical  experience  as  to 
methods  of  presentation.  In  1884,  Mrs.  Richards 
wrote  a  small  pamphlet  called  "First  Lessons  in 
Minerals,"  which  was  published  by  the  Boston 
Natural  History  Society  as  a  companion  volume  to 
similar  treatises  on  plants  and  animals. 

During  the  time  when  Mrs.  Richards  was  teaching 
mineralogy,  she  made  the  interesting  experiment  of 
giving  the  same  set  of  lessons  to  public  school  chil- 
dren and  to  a  class  of  undergraduates  at  Harvard. 
The  results  were  rather  surprising,  though  probably 
not  so  much  so  to  her  as  to  others.  The  children 
trusted  to  their  own  observation  instead  of  turning 
to  books  for  their  conclusions,  and  were  able  much 
sooner  than  the  older  pupils  to  identify  and  classify 
minerals. 

In  speaking  before  the  Woman's  Education  Asso- 
ciation about  the  value  of  scientific  work  for  young 
pupils,  she  said,  "If  the  only  object  is  to  make  the 
child  quick  to  observe,  sure  to  remember,  keen  in 
reasoning,  send  him  into  the  streets  as  a  bootblack 
or  a  newsboy ;  but  if  we  consider  the  moral  effect  as 
well,  we  shall  choose  the  classroom. 

"But  we  do  not  wish  to  make  a  dull,  sullen  boy 
where  the  streets  would  have  made  a  wide-awake 
business  man.  When  we  think  of  the  fascination  of 
the  city  thoroughfare,  the  motion,  the  noise,  the 
amusing  incidents,  we  do  not  wonder  that  the  bright 
boy  chafes  at  being  cooped  up  in  a  close  room  and 


190  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

made  to  do  sums  or  to  learn  the  names  of  the  cities 
of  Europe  while  the  sunshiny  hours  are  passing. 

"The  unwilling  mind  is  not  a  teachable  mind. 
Tasks  are  always  irksome.  How  can  the  schoolroom 
be  made  as  fascinating  as  the  street  and  at  the  same 
time  teach  its  moral  lessons  ?  If  a  guest  in  the  family 
attempts  to  amuse  the  child  with  his  watch,  he  does 
not  say,  'I  have  a  curious  round  object  in  my  pocket 
with  wheels  inside/  etc.,  but  he  shows  it  and  explains 
it  as  a  text  for  what  else  he  says. 

"So,  in  school,  the  child  should  have  some  pegs 
driven  into  the  wall  of  memory  upon  which  he  may 
hang  a  line  of  objects  more  or  less  distinctly  com- 
prehended, but  which  the  association  of  ideas  will 
bring  out  years  after.  Now  some  of  us  believe  that 
the  introduction  into  the  schoolroom  of  natural 
objects,  flowers,  minerals,  shells,  stuffed  birds,  dried 
insects,  fibers,  etc.,  furnish  these  pegs  upon  which 
the  facts  of  geography  and  history  and  the  exercises 
in  speaking  and  writing  English  may  be  advanta- 
geously hung.  We  believe  that  the  time  gained  in 
the  readiness  of  comprehension  and  clearness  of  ideas 
will  more  than  compensate  for  the  time  taken  in 
observing,  and  also  that  the  child's  innate  curiosity 
will  be  wisely  directed  and  his  reading  influenced." 

To  the  development  of  the  course  in  mineralogy, 
and  also  to  the  Teachers'  School  of  Science  con- 
ducted by  the  Boston  Natural  History  Society, 
Mrs.  Richards  gave  much  time  in  the  early  eighties. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         191 

In  1885  came  the  opportunity  to  combine  sci- 
ence with  manual  training.  In  this  year  two  school 
kitchens  were  established  in  Boston,  one  by  Mrs. 
Quincy  Shaw  at  North  Bennet  Street  School,  and 
another  by  Mrs.  Mary  Hemenway  at  the  Tennyson 
Street  School.  Two  years  later  the  latter  was  taken 
over  by  the  School  Committee,  and  became  Boston 
School  Kitchen  No.  1,  while  the  former  remained  an 
experiment  station  for  working  out  new  ideas  in 
practical  education.  Mrs.  Richards's  hope  for  this 
kind  of  teaching  was  that  it  would  hold  its  immedi- 
ately practical  value  and  at  the  same  time  gradually 
be  transformed  in  a  systematic  course  of  training  in 
applied  science.  Toward  this  end  she  worked  and 
preached. 

In  a  monograph  entitled,  "Domestic  Economy  in 
Public  Education,"  published-  in  1889  by  the  New 
York  College  for  the  Training  of  Teachers,  she 
wrote : 

"While  sympathizing  heartily  in  the  work  of  the 
cooking  schools  so  successfully  established,  the  writer 
fears  lest  they  come  to  be  considered  an  end  instead 
of  a  means,  as  has  been  the  case  in  schools  of  car- 
pentry. In  a  word,  they  should  'not  teach  how  to 
make  a  living,  but  how  to  live.'  To  do  this  effec- 
tually, the  foundation  should  be  broadened.  Just  as 
the  course  in  carpentering  has  developed  into  the 
manual  training  school,  so  should  the  eminently 
successful  cooking  school  develop  into  a  course  in 


192  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

domestic  economy.  All  the  work  of  the  schools 
should  be  in  harmony,  and  the  cooking  should  no 
longer  be  considered  an  outside  affair,  an  interloper, 
a  crowder-out  of  more  important  studies,  but  all  the 
teachers  should  cooperate  to  make  most  effective  the 
practical  lessons."  Significant  words,  considering 
they  were  spoken  at  a  time  when  the  world  recog- 
nized only  the  immediate  practical  utility  of  courses 
in  cooking,  and  not  their  broad  educational  value. 

She  was  keenly  appreciative  of  the  difficulties 
under  which  the  pioneer  teachers  of  these  subjects 
labored,  and  it  was  apparently  in  recognition  of 
the  very  meager  literature  available  for  them  that 
she  published  in  1885  her  book,  "Food  Materials 
and  Their  Adulterations,"  which  brought  together 
the  results  of  the  work  that  had  been  done  in  the 
Woman's  Laboratory.  When  Mrs.  Hemenway,  in 
1888,  started  a  Normal  School  of  Household  Arts, 
she  gave  the  lectures  on  Food  and  Nutrition. 

After  Miss  Crocker's  death,  in  1885,  a  strong 
effort  was  made  to  induce  Mrs.  Richards  to  leave 
her  position  in  the  Institute  and  become  Supervisor 
of  Schools.  In  a  letter  written  about  this  time,  she 
said:  "I  have  been  a  little  worried  by  an  attempt 
to  make  me  think  it  was  my  duty  to  accept  the  nomi- 
nation to  fill  the  vacancy  made  by  Miss  Crocker's 
death,  on  the  Board  of  Supervisors  in  the  Boston 
Schools.  A  political  place  with  no  power,  only  in- 
fluence, is  not  to  my  taste."  She  preferred  to  remain 


BEGINNINGS  OF  EUTHENICS         193 

outside  the  public  school  organization,  free  to  give 
help  and  encouragement  at  every  point,  pressing 
workers  into  the  service,  giving  them  faith  in  their 
own  powers,  and  holding  before  them  high  ideals. 
How  significant  she  considered  this  work  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  is  shown  by  a  letter  written  to  a  young 
woman  who  was  considering  a  position  to  teach 
cooking  : 

"We  are  trying  to  make  real  homes  for  the  chil- 
dren of  our  land.  We  are  trying  to  stem  the  tide 
of  intemperance  by  giving  good  food;  we  are  try- 
ing to  save  the  resources  of  our  country  by  showing 
how  cheap  food  may  be  good  food.  We  are  right 
on  the  threshhold  of  this  work.  The  children  are 
ready ;  the  public  is  ready  with  support ;  we  are  wait- 
ing for  a  true  philanthropic  teacher  to  work  out  the 
best  way  of  making  it  available  to  girls  of  our  land. 
To  me  the  question  appeals  so  much  tVat  I  am  ready 
to  make  any  sacrifice  for  it." 


CHAPTER  XI 

AMONG    COLLEGE    WOMEN 

WHEN  Mrs.  Richards  was  graduated  from  Vassar, 
in  1870,  college  women  were  too  few  and  too  widely 
separated  to  have  a  collective  influence  in  any  com- 
munity ;  but  as  women's  colleges  multiplied  and  as 
the  size  of  their  classes  increased,  the  graduates 
grew  in  number  and  began  to  feel  their  class  power. 
Then  came  the  thought  of  increasing  their  influence 
through  organization.  The  first  associations  of  col- 
lege women  brought  together  the  graduates  of  one 
college  only.  In  1871  Vassar  women  united  them- 
selves into  the  Associate  Alumnae  of  Vassar  College, 
and  four  years  later  a  Boston  branch  of  this  society 
was  formed. 

"We  had  a  breath  of  Vassar  in  the  holidays," 
Mrs.  Richards  wrote  in  January,  1876;  "twenty 
old  graduates  met  and  founded  the  Boston  Alumnae 
Association.  The  main  object  was  to  awaken  an 
active  interest  in  Vassar's  present  state  and  to  start 
scholarship  funds  so  that  poor  but  bright  girls  could 
be  sure  of  an  education." 

To  tell  the  story  of  what  Mrs.  Richards  did 
through  this  organization  for  the  girls  of  Vassar 

194 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN  195 

would  be  to  repeat  the  story  of  what  she  did  for  the 
girls  of  the  Institute  of  Technology.  Her  work  was 
of  course  less  direct  and  personal,  because  she  was 
separated  from  them  by  distance,  but  it  was  based 
on  the  same  broad  comprehension  of  their  needs.  To 
provide  them  with  scholarships,  to  protect  their 
health,  to  broaden  their  opportunities,  to  shield  them 
from  undesirable  publicity,  and  to  bring  them  into 
public  notice  in  helpful  ways  was  her  untiring  en- 
deavor. She  "  always  had  time  for  Vassar." 

Her  hope  for  Vassar  students,  as  well  as  for  other 
educated  women,  is  expressed  in  a  paper  of  hers, 
entitled  "The  College  Woman  in  1950": 

"This  young  woman  will  have  an  understanding 
of  the  main  forces  which  are  man's  servants,  not 
because  she  is  in  college,  but  because  she  learned 
them  in  the  elementary  schools,  in  the  fitting  schools, 
all  through  her  preparatory  courses;  for  by  that 
time  it  will  be  essential  that  every  child  shall  know 
the  world  he  lives  in,  whether  he  knows  anything  else 
or  not. 

"This  young  woman  will  not  run  at  the  sight  of 
a  cow,  scream  at  the  sound  of  a  mouse,  or  get  off 
an  electric  car  backward  (it  may  be  that  the  cars 
will  pass  each  other  the  other  way  by  that  time). 
She  will  have  learned  to  carry  bundles  on  her  right 
arm. 

"Instead  of  mental  gymnastics  practiced  for  the 
sake  of  showing  mere  prowess,  there  will  be  a  posi- 


196  ELLEN  IL  RICHARDS 

tive  power  of  control  of  mind  to  do  what  is  demanded 
of  it,  but  more  noticeable  will  be  the  perfect  control 
of  the  body  and  the  perfect  poise  of  the  health.  The 
college  woman  of  1950  will  join  with  Maria  Mitchell 
in  being  ashamed  to  be  ill ;  it  will  be  a  mark  of  low 
intelligence  in  those  days. 

"I  do  not  think  she  will  'do  her  own  sewing,'  as 
was  the  vogue  in  1870,  or  even  her  own  mending. 
She  will  know  plenty  of  persons  who  can  do  it  for  a 
consideration  and  her  time  will  bring  more  money. 
She  may  be  her  own  milliner,  for  in  that  day  more 
attention  will  be  paid  to  shape  of  bonnets  and  ar- 
rangement of  ribbons  and  shades  of  color  especially 
suited  to  the  wearer  and  to  the  rest  of  the  dress. 
So  also  the  small  details  of  the  toilette  will  be  more 
expressive  of  the  individual,  and  therefore  the  indi- 
vidual must  give  thought  to  them. 

"The  well-educated  young  woman  of  1950  will 
blend  art  and  science  in  a  way  we  do  not  dream  of; 
the  science  will  steady  the  art  and  the  art  will  give 
charm  to  science. 

"This  young  woman  will  marry — yes,  indeed, 
but  she  will  take  her  pick  of  the  men,  who  will  by 
that  time  have  begun  to  realize  what  sort  of  men  it 
behooves  them  to  be. 

"Each  will  be  a  center — the  pin  of  a  concretion 
around  which  will  grow  all  society.  She  will  not 
have  need  to  resort  to  subterfuge  before  her  boys. 
A  sense  of  power  is  the  most  intoxicating  stimulant 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN  197 

a  mortal  can  enjoy;  power  over  other  powerful 
forces,  over  other  persons ;  and  power  used  for  the 
general  good  brings  its  own  reward  in  satisfaction 
as  well  as  pleasure — not  always  the  same  thing. 

"Freedom  to  live  out  her  life  will  bring  with  it  a 
new  zest  in  life,  a  new  wish  to  make  it  of  service. 
Instead  of  the  vain  kicking  against  the  pricks  (and 
how  vain  and  how  prickly  some  of  us  could  tell,  with 
the  sense  of  the  utter  senselessness  of  it)  there  will 
come  a  radiance  which  will  transform  the  face  and 
ennoble  the  expression. 

"Her  share  of  the  work  will  be  well  done,  care- 
fully done,  but  she  will  not  be  a  slave  to  circum- 
stances. A  worse  slavery  than  the  world  knows  em- 
bitters the  lives  of  thousands  of  women  today,  and 
they  never  let  it  be  guessed  because  they  see  no  way 
out,  and  they  take  all  kinds  of  petty  ways  to  revenge 
themselves. 

"She  will  be  so  fair  to  look  upon,  so  gentle  and 
so  quiet  in  her  ways,  that  you  will  not  dream  that 
she  is  of  the  same  race  as  the  old  rebels  against  the 
existing  order,  who,  with  suspicion  in  our  eyes  and 
tension  in  our  hearts,  if  not  in  our  fists,  confront 
you  now  with  the  question,  'What  are  you  going  to 
do  about  it?'" 

In  June,  1894,  Mrs.  Richards  was  chosen  alumna 
trustee  of  Vassar  College.  At  the  time  when  she 
came  upon  the  board  the  question  of  sewage  disposal 
was  pressing.  The  custom  had  been  to  throw  all  the 


198  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

sewage,  with  little  previous  treatment,  into  Casper- 
kill  Creek  at  a  point  about  six  miles  from  the  Hud- 
son River.  But  as  time  went  on  the  authorities  of 
Poughkeepsie  objected  to  this  method  of  disposal, 
and  the  project  of  building  a  sewer  to  the  Hudson 
River  was  considered,  at  a  cost  which  was  variously 
estimated  at  from  $37,000  to  $50,000.  While  this 
matter  was  under  consideration  in  the  trustees' 
meeting,  Mrs.  Richards,  being  a  new  member,  sat 
silent.  Finally,  when  her  opinion  was  asked,  she  said 
that  it  had  always  seemed  to  her  that  educational 
institutions  should  lead  and  not  follow  in  the  matter 
of  sanitation,  and  that  for  Vassar  College  to  dispose 
of  its  sewage  by  allowing  it  to  flow  into  the  Hudson 
would  be  mediaeval.  When  asked  to  suggest  an  alter- 
native she  outlined  fully  and  from  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  the  newest  and  most  reliable  methods  a  plan 
for  a  sewage  disposal  plant.  This  plant  was  later 
installed  at  a  cost  of  $7,500.  But  economy  was  the 
least  advantage  that  Mrs.  Richards  saw  in  the  plan ; 
to  her  it  was  an  opportunity  to  make  an  experiment 
of  great  value  to  the  world,  and  she  believed  this  to 
be  the  business  of  every  institution  of  advanced  learn- 
ing. In  order  to  help  the  project  along,  she  herself 
gave  her  professional  services  for  many  years,  ana- 
lyzing the  drinking  water  of  the  college  frequently 
in  order  to  make  sure  that  it  was  not  being  contami- 
nated. She  was  proud  to  have  a  part  as  a  graduate 
in  what  she  believed  to  be  a  contribution  of  her  col- 
lege to  public  health. 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN  199 

It  was  not  until  1882  that  graduates  of  different 
colleges  were  brought  together  into  one  organization. 
That  year  saw  the  founding  of  the  Association  of 
Collegiate  Alumnse.  Strangely  enough,  the  idea  of 
this  organization,  whose  membership  consists  exclu- 
sively of  college  women,  was  conceived  in  the  mind 
cf  a  woman  who  had  not  been  to  college.  This  far- 
sighted  woman,  Mrs.  Emily  Talbot,  of  Boston,  was 
the  mother  of  two  daughters,  one  of  whom,  now  Dean 
Marion  Talbot  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  had 
just  graduated  from  Boston  University,  while  the 
other  "was  soon  to  follow  out  into  the  social  world 
handicapped  by  that  strange,  new  thing,  a  college 
education."  As  Mrs.  Talbot  looked  forward  into 
the  future,  she  saw  "an  ideal  organization  of  college 
women  for  practical  educational  work,  a  body  ready 
to  lend  aid,  counsel,  and  encouragement  to  all  who 
desire  to  fit  themselves  by  sound  education  for  the 
duties  of  life,"  and  she  wanted  to  give  her  daughters 
to  the  work  of  founding  such  a  society. 

Of  course  she  consulted  Mrs.  Richards ;  every  one 
did  in  educational  matters.  Mrs.  Richards  seems  to 
have  hesitated  at  first.  Perhaps  this  was  because  the 
plan  of  work  was  not  definitely  outlined,  for  she 
always  feared  to  set  in  motion  the  time-consuming 
machinery  of  organization  except  for  big  purposes. 
She  was  willing  to  make  the  experiment,  however, 
and  she  cooperated  with  Miss  Talbot  in  issuing  a 
call  for  an  informal  meeting.  This  meeting,  which 


200  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

was  held  on  November  28,  1881,  brought  together 
seventeen  women  from  eight  different  colleges  and 
universities. 

A  letter  written  by  Mrs.  Richards  on  January  4 
says:  "We  are  starting  a  new  project  here  which 
you  will  be  pleased  to  hear  about.  It  is  a  general 
association  of  college  graduates.  We  got  together 
at  a  caucus  on  short  notice,  graduates  of  seven  or 
eight  colleges.  We  are  to  have  a  meeting  for  organ- 
izing January  14.  I  do  not  know  what  good  will 
come  of  it,  but  Mrs.  Talbot,  of  Boston  (the  one  who 
engineered  the  Girls'  Latin  School  through)  sug- 
gested the  idea,  and  as  we  see  no  objection  and  some 
possible  advantages,  we  are  going  into  it.  We  shall 
be  a  sort  of  a  bureau  of  information,  at  any  rate." 

On  January  14  the  Association  of  Collegiate 
Alumnae  was  organized,  at  a  meeting  over  which 
Mrs.  Richards  presided.  Efforts  made  to  reach  all 
the  graduates  in  New  England  and  New  York  of 
the  eight  colleges  which  had  been  represented  at  the 
first  conference — Oberlin,  Smith,  Vassar,  Wellesley, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Cornell,  and  Boston — resulted 
in  bringing  together  only  sixty-five  people. 

Of  Mrs.  Talbot's  influence  on  the  association, 
Mrs.  Richards  said  long  afterwards:  "The  fact  that 
the  organization  was  successful  from  the  start  was 
due  to  the  counsels  of  one  who  had  had  much  experi- 
ence in  other  organizations  and  in  working  by  men's 
methods,  for  from  the  first  it  has  been  characterized 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN  201 

by  cool  deliberation  and  has  been  free,  we  flatter  our- 
selves, from  feminine  fads.  To  have  a  right  start  in 
life  is  a  great  advantage,  and  our  godmother  saw 
to  that.  She  gave  us  our  watchword — Work,  and 
practical  work.  We  were  not  to  meet  for  amusement 
nor  to  pass  an  idle  hour.  She  impressed  upon  us 
that  where  much  is  given  much  shall  be  required. 
She  called  us  to  service  in  the  cause  of  all  educa- 
tion—  for  the  state  and  for  the  better  life  of  the 
community." 

The  plan  of  the  association  has  always  been  to 
accept  for  membership  only  the  graduates  of  certain 
approved  colleges  of  high  standing.  To  the  original 
eight,  four  were  added  during  the  first  year.  These 
were  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
Wesleyan  University  at  Middletown,  Syracuse,  the 
University  of  Kansas.  During  Mrs.  Richards's  life, 
Barnard,  Bryn  Mawr,  Radcliffe,  Northwestern, 
Leland  Stanford,  Western  Reserve,  and  the  Univer- 
sities of  California,  Illinois,  Chicago,  Minnesota, 
Missouri,  and  Nebraska  were  added,  and  the  individ- 
ual membership  increased  to  fifty-two  hundred. 

The  general  organization  has  been  chiefly  con- 
cerned with  raising  the  standard  of  scholarship  in 
colleges  admitting  women  and  with  providing  fellow- 
ships for  advanced  study  in  this  country  and  abroad. 
The  branches  which  have  been  formed  in  forty-seven 
cities  and  towns,  East  and  West,  have  been  interested 
chiefly  in  local  educational  problems.  From  the  first 


202  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Mrs.  Richards  was  active  in  the  work  of  the  general 
association  and  in  the  Boston  branch,  and  was  wel- 
comed as  a  speaker  at  the  conventions  and  at  the 
meetings  of  the  various  branches. 

Dean  Talbot,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  was  with 
Mrs.  Richards  from  the  first  in  this  work,  says:  "It 
was  characteristic  of  her  that  after  the  association 
was  successfully  started  she  should  decline  to  accept 
conspicuous  official  positions  and  should  serve  rather 
as  a  'high  private'  wherever  opportunity  offered  or 
duty  called.  She  was,  however,  a  director  during  the 
first  year  and  vice-president  in  1886  and  1890.  As 
first  vice-president  she  was  in  charge  of  the  first 
meeting  held  west  of  New  York  State." 

The  records  of  the  association  show  that  the  first 
subject  considered  was  the  health  of  college  students. 
Mrs.  Richards  was  in  part  responsible  for  the  first 
circular  issued,  which  presented  very  clearly  the  low 
standards  of  the  colleges  in  regard  to  physical  edu- 
cation, and  made  a  very  strong  plea  for  greater 
attention  to  the  physical  basis  of  college  students' 
life.  Later  she  prepared  a  leaflet,  "Health  in  Pre- 
paratory Schools,"  with  blanks  to  be  filled  by  teach- 
ers and  parents.  These  were  widely  distributed  by 
the  association,  and  although  no  statistics  were  com- 
piled from  the  returns,  there  is  much  evidence  that 
the  pamphlet  proved  useful  by  suggesting  lines  of 
investigation  which  might  be  entered  upon  and 
improvements  which  might  be  introduced  into  the 
schools. 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN  203 

Soon  after  the  organization,  the  need  of  oppor- 
tunities for  graduate  study  became  apparent.  Here 
again  for  many  years  Mrs.  Richards  was  a  constant 
source  of  inspiration.  She  proposed  and  outlined  a 
circular  on  graduate  study,  and  served  several  years 
as  chairman  of  the  committee.  She  was  a  member 
of  the  council  to  accredit  women  for  advanced 
work  in  foreign  universities  and  of  the  committee  on 
a  national  university. 

Mrs.  Richards's  first  paper  before  the  association 
was  read  in  1890,  its  subject  being,  "The  Relation 
of  College  Women  to  Progress  in  Domestic  Science." 
In  this  paper  she  said: 

"The  college-bred  woman  is  a  comparatively  mod- 
ern product.  Twenty  years  ago  one  could  almost 
count  on  one's  fingers  the  women  who  were  so  edu- 
cated and  who  were  old  enough  to  impress  their 
individualities  on  any  community.  It  is  only  just 
now,  when  there  are  two  thousand  or  more  mature 
women  who  have  known  what  a  college  training  is  in 
their  own  experience,  that  we  can  begin  to  talk  ot 
their  influence  or  lay  out  work  for  them  as  a  class. 
As  individuals,  they  find  their  own  work ;  but  in  some 
respects  it  seems  to  me  that  they  have  obligations 
laid  upon  them  as  a  reward  or  penalty  for  their 
position  as  pioneers,  as  the  most  observed  class  of 
the  present  day.  We  have  been  treated  for  some 
years  to  discussions  from  eminent  men  as  to  our 
mental  ability,  our  moral  and  physical  status,  our 


204  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

predilection  for  matrimony,  our  fitness  for  voting 
or  for  the  Presidency;  but  the  kind  of  a  home  we 
should  make  if  we  did  make  one,  the  position  we 
should  take  on  the  servant  question,  the  influence 
we  should  have  on  the  center  and  source  of  political 
economy,  the  kitchen,  seem  to  have  been  ignored." 

From  this  beginning  she  went  on  to  advocate  the 
thorough  study  of  domestic  economy  in  all  our  col- 
leges for  women,  summarizing  her  arguments  in  this 
way:  "First,  and,  from  an  educational  point  of  view, 
foremost,  to  broaden  the  ideas  of  life  with  which  the 
young  woman  leaves  college,  to  bring  her  in  touch 
with  the  great  problems  which  press  more  closely 
each  year. 

"Second,  to  secure  a  solid  basis  for  improvement. 
Those  of  us  who  have  had  a  hand  in  reforms  know 
how  much  work  is  wasted  for  want  of  knowing  what 
has  already  been  done." 

In  October,  1911,  at  the  first  annual  meeting  to 
be  held  after  Mrs.  Richards's  death,  the  association 
seriously  considered  the  subject  which  she  had  pre- 
sented to  it  twenty-one  years  before. 

One  of  the  most  delicate  and  difficult  tasks  of  the 
association  has  been  to  extend  the  corporate  mem- 
bership without  injustice  to  individual  colleges,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  without,  on  the  other  hand,  lower- 
ing the  standards  set  by  the  association  for  the  very 
purpose  of  giving  the  weaker  institutions  an  incen- 
tive to  strengthen  their  courses.  In  the  task  of 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN  205 

selection,  Mrs.  Richards's  intimate  knowledge  of  col- 
leges and  universities  in  all  parts  of  the  country  came 
to  be  of  great  service.  When  she  advised  the  accept- 
ance or  the  rejection  of  an  institution,  the  informa- 
tion which  she  gave  the  special  committees  was  not 
second-hand,  but  was  based  upon  intimate  personal 
knowledge  of  existing  conditions.  The  president  of 
one  of  these  debated  colleges  wrote  to  an  officer 
of  the  association:  "The  one  who  knows  most  about 
us  has  been  our  strongest  supporter.  Mrs.  Ellen  H. 
Richards  has  been  here,  and  she  is  our  friend." 

Her  interest,  too,  in  educational  institutions  of 
all  types  and  her  understanding  of  the  value  of  the 
work  done  by  the  smaller  colleges,  even  those  which 
were  not  of  such  grade  as  to  permit  of  membership 
in  the  association,  made  it  possible  for  her  to  make 
an  adverse  decision  the  opportunity  for  coopera- 
tion and  helpfulness.  The  president  of  one  of  these 
smaller  colleges  says : 

"I  remember  a  characteristic  interview  in  Mrs. 
Richards's  study  at  the  Institute  on  a  day  of  steam- 
ing heat  at  the  beginning  of  our  summer  vacation 
in  1889.  We  were  both  tired  and  I  was  in  perplex- 
ity at  the  attitude  of  the  Association  of  Collegiate 
Alumnae  toward  our  college.  Mrs.  Richards  stood 
firm  by  the  definition  of  a  college  as  laid  down  by 
the  association,  while  I  contended  for  a  much  more 
generous  interpretation,  knowing,  as  I  did,  how  all 
the  germs  of  development  in  arts  and  sciences  had 


206  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

existed  in  such  institutions  as  mine,  even  before  the 
foundations  of  some  of  the  colleges  in  the  association 
were  laid.  It  is  pleasant  to  remember  how  then  and 
always  we  have  been  able  to  sink  our  differences  in 
our  desire  to  serve  the  general  good.  She  became 
one  of  the  most  helpful  friends  our  college  has  ever 
had." 

Mrs.  Richards's  last  work  for  the  general  Asso- 
ciation of  Collegiate  Alumnae  was  in  connection  with 
a  committee  on  Euthenics,  whose  work  was  barely 
outlined  at  the  time  of  her  death.  The  intention  of 
the  association  had  been  to  form  a  committee  on 
Eugenics,  or  the  science  of  human  improvement 
by  better  breeding;  but  because  of  Mrs.  Richards's 
urgent  pleading,  it  decided  to  give  its  attention  to 
the  science  of  controllable  environment.  The  dis- 
cussion in  the  association  followed  the  lines  of  a 
friendly  controversy  which  had  been  going  on  be- 
tween Dr.  C.  B.  Davenport  and  other  scientists, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  Mrs.  Richards,  on  the  other, 
as  to  whether  Eugenics  was  the  parent  of  Euthenics 
or  vice  versa,  the  supporters  of  Eugenics  contend- 
ing that  the  best  results  for  the  race  were  to  be 
obtained  through  the  careful  selection  of  parents, 
Mrs.  Richards  that  improved  environment  would 
improve  the  physical  condition  of  future  parents  and 
bring  quicker  results  in  race  development. 

The  activities  in  which  the  Boston  branch  engaged 
were  many,  and  in  all  of  them  Mrs.  Richards  had  an 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN  207 

active  part.  It  maintained  for  some  time  a  Fellow- 
ship in  the  School  of  Housekeeping  connected  with 
the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union  of 
Boston.  The  Fellowship  was  held  by  Miss  Gertrude 
Bigelow,  and  the  result  was  the  preparation  of  a 
monograph  on  "The  Relation  of  Cost  in  Home 
Cooked  and  Purchased'Food,"  which  was  published 
in  1901  as  Bulletin  No.  19  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Labor.  This  study,  which  was  the  first 
of  the  kind  to  be  made  in  this  country,  was  sug- 
gested by  Mrs.  Richards,  and  was  in  line  with  her 
belief  that  housewives  should  have  the  benefit  of  all 
the  knowledge  obtainable  about  ways  of  reducing  the 
amount  of  labor  involved  in  maintaining  a  home. 

Another  important  work  which  Mrs.  Richards 
did  in  connection  with  the  Boston  branch  was  an 
investigation  of  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  public 
school  buildings  of  the  city.  This  work  was  in 
charge  of  a  committee  of  which  Mrs.  Alice  U. 
Pearmain  was  chairman  and  Mrs.  Richards  an 
active  member.  The  committee  secured  as  an  expert 
Mr.  S.  Homer  Woodbridge,  Professor  of  Heating 
and  Ventilation  at  the  Massachusetts  Institute 
of  Technology,  and  he  and  his  assistants  made  a 
scientific  investigation  of  the  heating  and  ventilat- 
ing apparatus  and  of  the  plumbing  in  all  of  the 
buildings  used  for  school  purposes.  The  cleanliness 
of  the  buildings  and  the  provisions  for  exit  in  case  of 
fire  were  also  noted.  The  results  of  this  investigation 


208  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

it  would  be  unfair  to  give  here.  They  form  a  dark 
chapter  in  the  history  of  school  administration  in 
Boston,  which  has  a  correspondingly  dark  chapter 
in  the  history  of  school  affairs  in  every  great  city  of 
the  country.  Boston,  therefore,  must  not  be  singled 
out  and  made  to  suffer  before  the  public  because  it 
happened  to  have,  or  was  so  fortunate  as  to  have, 
an  exceptionally  enterprising  and  public-spirited 
branch  of  the  Collegiate  Alumnae. 

It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  results  of  this  in- 
vestigation have  been  very  far-reaching.  It  served 
to  arouse  public  opinion  to  the  belief  that  responsi- 
bility for  the  condition  of  the  schools  was  altogether 
too  much  divided.  In  1897,  a  committee  of  citizens 
of  which  Mrs.  Richards  was  a  member  started  an 
agitation  for  the  purpose  of  getting  through  the 
Legislature  a  bill  providing  for  certain  important 
changes. 

Mrs.  Richards  prepared  for  this  agitation  by 
entering  upon  a  correspondence  with  prominent  edu- 
cators in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  when  she  felt 
that  her  plans  were  sufficiently  well  laid  she  arranged 
with  a  committee  of  the  Woman's  Education  Asso- 
ciation, of  which  she  was  chairman,  to  send  out  invi- 
tations for  a  mass  meeting  in  Huntington  Hall  for 
the  purpose  of  considering  proposed  changes  in  the 
school  committee.  This  meeting  was  most  cleverly 
planned.  Instead  of  advertising  it  in  a  general  way, 
the  committee  sent  invitations  to  members  of  the 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN  209 

Legislature,  city  officials,  superintendents  of  schools 
in  all  parts  of  New  England,  members  of  associations 
interested  in  education,  and  to  many  others.  Each 
invitation  contained  a  note  saying  that  upon  the  re- 
ceipt of  an  acceptance  a  ticket  for  a  reserved  seat 
would  be  sent.  This  made  it  possible  to  judge  from 
the  returns  the  extent  and  also  the  distribution  of  the 
interest.  It  served,  also,  to  make  it  seem  a  privilege 
to  be  invited  to  be  present.  The  outcome  of  the 
meeting  was  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to 
prepare  a  bill  for  presentation  to  the  Legislature 
the  following  session.  This  bill,  as  it  was  finally 
drafted  after  much  discussion  by  a  committee  of 
which  Mrs.  Richards  was  a  member,  provided  for  a 
reduction  of  the  school  committee  from  twenty-four 
members  to  twelve,  for  placing  the  responsibility  for 
all  educational  matters,  including  the  selection  of 
teachers,  with  the  superintendent,  for  placing  the 
responsibility  of  all  financial  matters  with  a  business 
agent,  for  the  creation  of  a  school  faculty  to  give 
the  teachers  a  voice  in  the  educational  policy,  and 
for  the  creation  of  a  voluntary  committee  in  each 
ward  of  the  city  to  act  as  an  intermediary  between 
the  parents  and  teachers. 

In  the  rough  notes  which  Mrs.  Richards  left  of 
the  speech  she  made  during  this  campaign,  she  said 
in  connection  with  the  centralizing  of  educational 
authority  in  the  superintendent:  "A  man  can  say 
'No'  in  an  hour  where  a  committee  is  likely  to  dis- 


210  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

cuss  for  weeks.  It  has  been  happily  said  that  'if 
the  children  of  Israel,  in  their  passage  through  the 
wilderness,  had  been  governed  by  a  committee  instead 
of  by  a  leader,  they  would  probably  be  wandering 
around  the  wilderness  today.'  ' 

The  committee  having  the  bill  in  charge  was  con- 
vinced of  the  desirability  of  enacting  the  bill  as  a 
whole,  but  after  several  years  of  unsuccessful  effort 
it  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  project.  There  re- 
mained no  evidence  of  its  prolonged  agitation  except 
an  educated  public  opinion.  A  few  years  afterward 
a  bill  was  passed  which  embodied  some  of  the  pro- 
visions for  which  Mrs.  Richards  had  worked  so  hard. 
The  school  committee  was  reduced  in  size,  not,  how- 
ever, to  twelve,  but  to  five  members,  and  a  school- 
house  commission  was  created.  But  the  provisions 
which  might  have  served  to  democratize  school  affairs 
—the  creation  of  a  school  faculty  and  a  citizens' 
committee — were  not  embodied.  There  is  a  wide- 
spread opinion  in  Boston  that  if  they  had  been,  much 
friction  between  the  teaching  force  and  the  schools 
might  have  been  averted. 

The  work  of  the  Sanitary  Science  Club  formed  by 
the  Boston  branch  has  already  been  mentioned. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  review  Mrs.  Richards's 
work  in  connection  with  the  Association  of  Collegi- 
ate Alumnae  without  being  convinced  that  her  influ- 
ence was  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  she  was  more 
than  a  college  woman  and  that  she  was  able  to  bring 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN  211 

this  organization  into  connection  with  other  and 
varied  activities  and  broader  interests.  Some  one 
has  spoken  recently  of  the  "cross  fertilization"  of 
the  sciences.  A  "cross  fertilization"  of  good  works 
was  always  going  on  where  Mrs.  Richards  was  in- 
volved. To  illustrate:  Her  travels  in  connection 
with  Professor  Richards's  work  as  a  mining  engineer 
carried  her  often  into  the  Southern  States  and  had 
familiarized  her  with  its  educational  problems.  She 
saw  a  need  there  of  an  organization  similar  to  the 
Collegiate  Alumnae  Association,  and  when,  in  1902, 
such  an  organization  was  formed,  she  was  not  con- 
tent to  lopk  on,  but  became  one  of  its  most  earnest 
and  helpful  members.  The  Southern  Association  of 
College  Women  includes  the  graduates  of  many 
Northern  colleges,  but  almost  without  exception  they 

are  residents  of  the  South ;  and  Mrs.  Richards  was 

/ 

one  of  the  very  few  Northern  women  who  saw  the 
chance  to  give  the  newer  society  the  benefit  of  the  ex- 
perience of  the  older  organization.  The  catholicity 
of  her  interests  was  never  more  apparent  than  when, 
at  the  jubilee  celebration  at  the  twenty-fifth  anni- 
versary of  the  founding  of  the  Association  of  Col- 
legiate Alumnae,  she,  a  New  England  woman  by  birth 
and  training,  offered  the  greetings  of  the  Southern 
Association  of  College  Women. 

She  was  always  interested  in  creating  for  women 
opportunities  for  advanced  work.  She  had  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  founding  of  the  Hyannis  Marine 


212  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Laboratory,  which  later  became  the  Woods  Hole 
Laboratory,  and  she  was  actively  interested  in  the 
association  which  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  entrance  for  women  into  Johns  Hopkins 
Medical  College.  In  1898  she  became  one  of  the 
charter  members  of  the  Naples  Table  Association 
for  Promoting  Laboratory  Research  by  Women. 

The  history  of  the  Naples  Table  Association,  like 
that  of  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae,  is  of 
interest  here  only  as  it  shows  a  phase  of  her  untiring 
labors.  In  the  spring  of  1898,  a  small  group  of 
women  gathered  in  Cambridge  to  discuss  the  forma- 
tion of  a  society  to  support  a  table  for  American 
women  at  the  zoological  station  in  Naples.  This 
station  had  been  founded  in  1872  by  Professor  Anton 
Dohrn,  then  of  Jena,  for  the  purpose  of  doing  some- 
thing of  lasting  benefit  for  the  science  which  he  loved. 
He  had  already  opened,  at  his  own  expense,  a  small 
laboratory  at  Messina,  but  this  was  but  the  incentive 
to  greater  things.  Dedicating  his  own  private  for- 
tune to  the  enterprise,  winning  the  interest  of  lead- 
ing scientists,  securing  substantial  aid  from  Euro- 
pean governments,  he  persevered  until  his  dream 
became  a  reality.  On  the  shore  of  the  beautiful  Bay 
of  Naples  rose  the  white  marble  building  of  the 
Stazione  Zoologica  di  Napoli. 

From  the  first,  Dr.  Dohrn  admitted  women  to  the 
station  on  equal  terms  with  men;  and  when  the  sci- 
entists of  the  world  were  uniting  to  celebrate  the 


• 


'  ^ 


AMONG  COLLEGE  WOMEN 

twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the  station,  the  sugges- 
tion came  from  Dr.  Ida  Hyde,  who  had  enjoyed  the 
privileges  of  the  station,  that  American  women  show 
their  appreciation  of  the  position  he  had  taken  with 
regard  to  women  students  by  annually  contributing 
to  its  support. 

The  organization  was  completed  in  April,  1898, 
and  from  the  outset  Mrs.  Richards  was  an  interested 
and  valued  member.  "Much  that  she  did  for  the 
work,"  one  of  her  associates  says,  "no  one  could 
have  done  better,  much  of  it  no  one  else  could  have 
done  at  all.  She  saw  what  ought  to  be  done  and 
could  be  done,  and  she  saw  how  to  do  it.  The  work 
of  the  Naples  Table  was  peculiarly  congenial  to  her, 
and  she  was  naturally  consulted  on  every  detail  of 
the  organization  and  scope.  This  association  had 
the  unusual  distinction  of  an  income  larger  than  its 
needs,  and  it  was  decided  to  offer  a  prize  of  one 
thousand  dollars  for  an  original  paper  of  high  grade 
embodying  the  results  of  research  in  certain  fields. 
Mrs.  Richards  was  chairman  of  this  committee  on 
award  from  the  first,  and  to  her  more  than  to  any 
one  is  due  the  remarkable  success  of  the  competition. 
She  knew  the  field  and  the  workers  in  science  so  well 
that  it  was  possible  for  her  to  appeal  personally  to 
the  men  of  science  and  the  teachers  whom  it  was 
necessary  to  interest.  They,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
perfect  confidence  in  her  wisdom  and  her  sanity  of 
judgment,  and  they  were  willing  and  glad  to  help. 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

"To  Mrs.  Richards  were  intrusted  the  theses  pre- 
sented for  competition.  How  zealously  she  guarded 
them !  She,  better  than  any  one  else  on  the  commit- 
tee, could  appreciate  the  labor  that  had  gone  into 
them,  and  she  handled  those  pages  of  typewritten 
matter  and  carefully  prepared  drawings  almost  with 
love.  When  it  was  necessary  to  submit  them  to  the 
decision  of  the  board  of  examiners,  Mrs.  Richards 
often  personally  carried  the  papers  to  the  study  door 
or  even  to  the  very  office  desk  of  the  busy  professor 
who  was  to  pass  judgment  upon  them.  The  very 
last  work  she  did  for  this  association  was  in  connec- 
tion with  the  essays  submitted  for  the  fifth  prize  to 
be  awarded  at  the  annual  meeting  in  April,  1911. 
Even  at  the  time  of  her  death  some  of  the  seventeen 
essays  submitted  in  competition  were  locked  in  her 
safe,  while  careful  memoranda  showed  in  whose  hands 
others  had  been  placed  for  examination."  Before 
the  time  for  the  meeting  arrived,  Mrs.  Richards's 
life  had  come  to  a  close.  The  meeting,  therefore, 
took  the  form  of  a  memorial  to  her,  and  the  follow- 
ing resolution  was  passed: 

Voted,  That  "this  Association  express  its  appre- 
ciation of  the  devoted  service  of  Mrs.  Richards  as 
the  continuous  chairman  of  the  prize  committee  since 
its  formation  in  1900,  by  naming  its  prize  in  her 
honor  the  Ellen  Richards  Research  Prize." 


CHAPTER  XII 

MISSIONARY    OF    SCIENCE 

IN  January,  1890,  Mrs.  Richards  entered  upon 
an  undertaking  which,  to  use  the  words  of  a  popular 
English  writer,  was  "an  interesting  failure,  but  a 
failure  which  had  all  the  educational  value  of  a  first 
reconnaissance  into  unexplored  territory."  This 
experiment  was  the  famous  New  England  Kitchen 
of  Boston,  and  the  "unexplored  territory"  was  the 
willingness  of  the  poor  to  be  scientifically  fed. 

The  opportunity  to  make  this  experiment  came 
through  a  somewhat  remarkable  and  a  most  happy 
combination  of  circumstances.  The  first  was  the 
gift  of  a  large  sum  of  money  by  Mrs.  Quincy  Shaw, 
of  Boston,  Louis  Agassiz's  daughter,  for  the  purpose 
of  "making  a  thorough  study  of  the  food  and 
nutrition  of  working  men  and  its  possible  relation 
to  the  question  of  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors." 
Mrs.  Shaw  selected  Mrs.  Richards  to  make  the  study, 
leaving  the  character  of  the  investigation  and  of  the 
practical  work  to  be  determined  by  her.  She  did 
not  try  to  dictate  as  to  the  scope  of  the  experiment 
or  as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  was  to  be  carried 
on.  She  supplied  the  money  and  left  Mrs.  Richards 
to  do  the  work. 


216  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

A  second  event  which  led  indirectly  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  New  England  Kitchen  was  an  offer 
made  in  1888  by  Mr.  Henry  Lomb,  of  the  Bausch 
and  Lomb  Optical  Company,  through  the  American 
Public  Health  Association,  of  a  five  hundred  dollar 
prize  for  the  best  essay  on  "sanitary  and  economic 
cooking  adapted  to  persons  of  moderate  and  small 
means."  Seventy  essays  were  submitted  in  competi- 
tion for  the  prize,  and  Mrs.  Richards  was  a  member 
of  the  committee  of  award.  The  essay  on  "The  Five 
Food  Principles  Illustrated  by  Practical  Recipes" 
was  found  to  be  "not  only  preeminently  the  best  of 
the  seventy,  but  also  an  admirable  treatise  on  the 
subject.  It  is  simple  and  lucid  in  statement,"  the 
report  went  on  to  say,  "methodical  in  arrangement 
and  well  adapted  to  the  practical  wants  of  the  class 
to  which  it  is  addressed.  Whoever  may  read  it  can 
have  confidence  in  the  soundness  of  its  teachings  and 
cannot  fail  to  be  instructed  in  the  art  of  cooking 
by  its  plain  precepts,  founded  as  they  are  upon  the 
correct  application  of  the  scientific  principles  of 
chemistry  and  physiology  to  the  proper  preparation 
of  food  for  man." 

The  following  year,  at  a  meeting  of  the  American 
Public  Health  Association  in  Brooklyn,  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards met  the  writer  of  this  paper,  Mrs.  Mary  Hin- 
man  Abel,  who  had  just  returned  from  a  residence 
of  several  years  in  Europe.  In  speaking,  many  years 
afterwards,  of  Mrs.  Richards's  relation  to  people  in 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE 

general,  Mrs.  Abel  said:  "I  think  she  was  always 
attended  by  the  joy  of  possible  discoveries  of  people. 
Any  hour  might  come  the  great  adventure/'  Look- 
ing back  to  that  meeting  in  Brooklyn  and  to  its 
consequences,  we  feel  that  Mrs.  Richards  must  have 
recognized  "the  great  adventure,"  for  she  lost  no 
time  in  persuading  Mrs.  Abel  to  join  her,  and  there 
was  thus  secured  for  the  New  England  Kitchen,  in 
its  first  half-year,  the  benefit  of  the  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  Volks  Kiiche,  Fourneau  Economique,  and 
other  forms  of  public  kitchens  which  Mrs.  Abel  had 
gained  during  the  years  spent  in  Europe. 

A  third  circumstance  leading  to  the  opening  of 
the  Kitchen  was  an  invention  by  Mr.  Edward  Atkin- 
son of  the  Aladdin  Oven,  a  device  by  which  he  hoped 
to  revolutionize  culinary  methods  and  greatly  de- 
crease the  cost  of  preparing  food.  Mr.  Atkinson, 
as  we  have  seen,  had  availed  himself  of  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards's  services  long  before,  by  making  her  consulting 
chemist  for  companies  with  which  he  was  connected. 
When,  therefore,  he  wished  to  have  his  new  oven 
tested,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  have  turned  to 
her.  Though  this  oven  was  not  the  only  cooker 
tested  in  the  Kitchen,  it  became  of  great  value  in 
the  preparation  of  the  cheaper  cuts  of  meat  and 
of  many  other  low-priced  foods  which  require  long, 
slow  cooking. 

Mr.  Atkinson's  interest  in  the  New  England 
Kitchen,  however,  was  valuable  chiefly  for  the  enthu- 


218  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

siasm  which  he  injected  into  the  work  because  of 
his  zeal  for  solving  some  of  the  economic  problems 
connected  with  food,  and  also  because  he  was  able, 
through  his  business  relations  with  wealthy  men,  to 
secure  large  sums  of  money  for  experimental  work. 
Under  auspicious  circumstances,  therefore,  un- 
hampered by  lack  of  funds  and  having  the  benefit 
and  advice  of  many  specialists,  the  New  England 
Kitchen  was  opened  at  142  Pleasant  Street,  Boston, 
on  January  1,  1890,  with  Mrs.  Abel  in  immediate 
charge.  From  the  beginning  an  attempt  was  made 
to  serve  cooked  food  for  home  consumption  and  to 
give  the  largest  possible  amount  of  nourishment  for 
a  given  amount  of  money.  In  order  to  do  this,  it  was 
necessary  to  take  into  account  all  available  knowl- 
edge concerning  the  composition  of  foods,  current 
prices,  and  possible  methods  of  applying  heat  in 
cookery.  Those  who  were  connected  with  the  work 
hoped  to  be  able  to  work  out  recipes  for  a  few  stand- 
ard foods  so  exactly  that  the  food  value  of  a  given 
weight  of  the  finished  product  would  always  be  the 
same.  Dr.  Drown,  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the 
Institute  of  Technology,  had  said  that  if  one  food, 
beef  broth  for  example,  could  be  made  of  the  same 
flavor  and  strength  day  after  day  and  as  unvarying 
in  its  constituents  as  the  medicine  compounded  to 
meet  a  physician's  prescription,  that  result  alone 
would  justify  the  proposed  expenditure  of  time  and 
money.  By  the  help  of  repeated  chemical  analyses 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE  219 

the  methods  of  preparing  this  dish  were  brought  to 
such  perfection  that  the  result  was  a  food  which 
differed  only  in  slight  degree  from  day  to  day  and 
which  had  very  nearly  the  same  composition  as  milk 
without  fat.  It  was  welcomed  by  the  physicians  of 
Boston,  and  the  New  England  Kitchen,  which  had 
been  founded  for  the  purpose  of  helping  the  poor 
working  man,  had  its  first  triumph  in  meeting  the 
needs  of  the  well-to-do  sick. 

After  a  long  series  of  studies,  the  following  foods 
were  placed  on  sale  by  weight  or  measure :  beef  broth, 
vegetable  soup,  pea  soup,  corn  meal  mush,  boiled 
hominy,  oatmeal  mush,  pressed  beef,  beef  stew,  fish 
chowder,  tomato  soup,  Indian  pudding,  rice  pudding, 
and  oatmeal  cakes.  These  foods  were  intended  to 
supplement  those  prepared  in  the  homes  of  the 
people.  The  restaurant  which  was  later  opened  was 
not  a  part  of  the  original  plan. 

From  the  beginning  every  part  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Kitchen  was  open  to  the  public,  in  order  that 
its  methods  might  be  demonstrated  and  that  its 
cleanliness  might  serve  as  an  example.  In  this  con- 
nection it  is  interesting  to  note  that  there  is  just 
now,  twenty  years  later,  a  movement  among  people 
who  realize  the  menace  of  dirty  restaurants  to  make 
it  obligatory  for  restaurant  keepers  to  disclose  their 
kitchens  to  the  public  by  having  transparent  parti- 
tions between  them  and  the  dining  rooms,  or  in  some 
similar  way. 


220  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Through  Mr.  Atkinson  a  grant  of  three  hundred 
dollars  had  been  obtained  for  the  Kitchen  from 
the  trustees  of  the  Elizabeth  Thompson  Fund. 
This  money  was  used  in  the  purchase  of  scientific 
instruments  and  to  pay  for  the  frequent  chemical 
analyses  necessary  in  the  course  of  the  work.  The 
report  made  by  Mrs.  Richards  and  Mrs.  Abel  to  the 
trustees  of  this  fund  was  presented  by  Mr.  Atkinson 
at  a  meeting  of  the  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science  in  August,  1890,  and  may  be  found  in  the 
published  proceedings  (Volume  39). 

Other  kitchens  after  the  model  of  the  original 
were  established  in  the  West  and  North  Ends  of 
Boston,  at  Olneyville,  a  suburb  of  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  at  341  Hudson  Street,  New  York,  and  at 
Hull  House,  Chicago.  They  were  all  failures  as  far 
as  their  original  purpose,  that  of  persuading  the 
poor  of  the  advantage  of  low-priced  and  nourish- 
ing food,  was  concerned.  "Their  death  knell  was 
sounded,"  to  quote  Mrs.  Richards,  "by  the  woman 
who  said,  'I  don't  want  to  eat  what's  good  for  me; 
I'd  ruther  eat  what  I'd  ruther.' '  The  man,  too, 
from  Southern  Europe  who  defiantly  said,  "You 
needn't  try  to  make  a  Yankee  of  me  by  making  me 
eat  that,"  pointing  to  baked  Indian  pudding,  may 
have  helped  ring  the  knell. 

But  to  say  that  the  New  England  Kitchen  was  a 
failure  in  any  broad  sense  would  be  absurd,  for  either 
one  alone  of  two  important  outgrowths,  the  Rum- 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE 


221 


ford  Kitchen  at  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago,  an 
epoch-making  educational  experiment,  and  the  school 
lunch  project  in  Boston  and  elsewhere,  disprove  such 
a  statement. 

The  Rumford  Kitchen,  which  was  a  part  of  the 
Massachusetts  State  exhibit  at  the  Fair,  was  planned 
and  carried  on  by  Mrs.  Richards.  In  a  tiny  building 
near  the  south  end  of  the  great  exhibition  grounds 
she  established  a  model  kitchen,  which,  like  its  pro- 
totype in  Boston,  laid  bare  all  its  processes  to  the 
public.  Here,  day  after  day,  it  was  possible  for 
visitors  to  the  Fair  to  buy  lunches  whose  food  value 
had  been  carefully  computed  and  noted  on  the  bills 
of  fare.  The  following  is  a  sample  menu : 


FOOD  VAU-E  IN  GRAMS 

Proteid 

Fat 

Carbo- 
hydrates 

Calories 

Volt's  Standard.    One-quarter 

of  one  day's  ration 

24.5 

14.0 

125.0 

742.0 

Atwater's  Standard.    One- 

quarter  of  one  day's  ration 

31.2 

si.  a 

114.0 

882.0 

Ounces 

Grams 

Baked  Beans 

8.4 

238.11 

Brown  Bread 

4.2 

119.1 

One  Roll 

2.0 

56.7} 

26.3 

35.6 

131.4 

979.3 

Butter 

0.7 

19.8 

Apple  Sauce 

5.3 

150.2 

After  the  close  of  the  World's  Fair,  Mrs.  Richards 
reported  to  the  managers:  "The  intention  of  the 
exhibit  was  to  illustrate  the  present  state  of  knowl- 


222  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

edge  in  regard  to  the  composition  of  materials  for 
human  food,  the  means  of  making  these  materials 
most  available  for  nutrition,  and  the  quantity  of  each 
necessary  for  a  working  ration.  It  was  also  in  part 
intended  as  a  centennial  celebration  of  the  services 
to  humanity  of  a  man  of  Massachusetts  birth  and 
parentage,  Benjamin  Thompson,  Count  Rumford  of 
Bavaria,  the  first  to  apply  the  term  'science  of  nutri- 
tion' to  the  study  of  human  food,  and  the  first  to 
apply  science  to  the  preparation  of  food  materials. 

"Not  the  least  valuable  part  of  the  exhibit  con- 
sisted in  the  series  of  pamphlets  prepared  for  the 
Rumford  Kitchen  by  authorities  in  the  several  de- 
partments of  science  which  relate  to  human  food  and 
nutrition.  That  such  men  as  Professors  Remsen, 
Howell,  and  Abel  of  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
Professor  Chittenden  of  Yale  University,  Professor 
Sedgwick  of  the  Institute  of  Technology,  and  others, 
were  willing  to  prepare  these  scientific  papers  shows 
a  great  step  toward  placing  this  branch  of  sanitary 
science  in  its  rightful  place. 

"This  series  is  not  yet  complete,  though  it  will 
finally  appear  in  book  form  as  a  permanent  result 
of  the  Chicago  Exposition.  [The  papers  were  pub- 
lished in  1899  under  the  title,  "Rumford  Kitchen 
Leaflets."  The  copyright  was  in  Mrs.  Richards's 
name.]  The  charts,  diagrams,  and  books  of  the 
exhibit  were  studied  with  great  eagerness,  and  can- 
not but  have  given  impetus  to  the  investigations 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE 

in  these  directions ;  while  the  practical  outcome  of 
the  taste  and  relish  of  the  food  served  was  shown 
in  the  fact  that  some  ten  thousand  people  were 
served  during  the  two  months  that  the  Kitchen  was 
open,  between  the  hours  of  twelve  and  two  only, 
in  a  space  so  small  as  to  permit  only  thirty  people 
to  be  seated  at  the  same  time. 

"In  order  to  emphasize  the  facts  above  narrated, 
the  food  was  served  in  portions  containing  a  definite 
amount  of  nutrition,  and  the  menu  card  on  each  table 
gave  the  requirement  for  one-quarter  of  the  day's 
ration,  with  the  weight  and  composition  of  each 
dish  composing  the  meal.  A  choice  of  two  or  three 
luncheons,  for  which  the  price  was  thirty  cents,  was 
given  each  day,  each  containing  three  or  four  dishes, 
though  an  extra  price  was  made  for  a  glass  of  milk, 
for  a  cup  of  cocoa,  tea,  or  coffee." 

There  never  was  so  unique  a  lunchroom,  never 
one  which  provoked  so  much  intelligent  discussion. 
The  walls  were  hung  with  charts  showing  the  com- 
position of  foods.  The  exhibits  included  a  set  of 
blocks  demonstrating  the  chemical  composition  of  the 
human  body,  a  miniature  chemical  laboratory  for 
housewives,  and  a  reference  library  on  foods  and 
hygiene.  Around  the  top  of  the  wall  ran  a  frieze 
of  legends  including,  among  others,  the  following: 

"Nothing  is  so  disgraceful  to  society  and  indi- 
viduals as  unmeaning  wastefulness." — Rumford. 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

"The  seat  of  courage  is  in  the  stomach." 
"Preserve  and  treat  your  food  as  you  would  your 

body,  remembering  that  in  time  food  will  be  your 

body."— B.  W.  Richardson. 

"A  man  too  busy  to  take  care  of  his  health  is  like 

a  mechanic  too  busy  to  take  care  of  his  tools." 

"The  spirit  of  each  dish,  and  zest  of  all, 
Is  what  ingenious  cooks  the  relish  call." 

"Prayer  and  provender  delay  no  man's  journey." 

"A  man  is  what  he  eats." 

"It  is  an  irritating,  nay  a  deeply  saddening, 
problem  for  a  wise  dyspeptic  to  ponder,  the  super- 
abundance of  things  cookable  in  this  world  of  ours, 
and  the  extreme  rarity  of  cooks." — Maartens. 

"There  is  no  pain  like  the  pain  of  a  new  idea." 
— Bagehot. 

"The  scientific  aspect  of  food  must  be  united  in 
bonds  of  holy  matrimony  with  a  practical  knowledge 
of  the  cook's  art,  before  a  man  can  discours^  learn- 
edly of  food." — Fothergill. 

"Courage,  cheerfulness,  and  a  desire  to  work  de- 
pends mostly  on  good  nutrition." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that,  with  crowds  of 
sight-seers  passing  through  the  building  at  all  hours 
of  the  day,  life  was  not  without  its  amusing  and 
entertaining  incidents.  The  weary  excursionist  asked 
to  be  given  something  for  "tired  leg  muscles."  The 
literal-minded  man  insisted  on  being  told  the  exact 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE  225 

meaning  of  "There  is  no  pain  like  the  pain  of  a  new 
idea."  The  uncompromising  reformer  read,  "A  man 
is  what  he  eats,"  and  wanted  "more  often  what 
lie  drinks,"  added  on  to  it.  The  family  man  com- 
plained that  carbohydrates  were  expensive  at  thirty 
L-ents  apiece  when  you  had  four  or  five  children 
to  feed.  The  domestic  woman  insisted  on  seeing 
Mrs.  Rumford,  and  the  jocular  youth  said  in  depart- 
ing after  lunch,  "I  am  going  right  over  now  to  get 
weighed  and  see  if  I  really  ate  the  twenty  ounces  I 
was  entitled  to  by  the  bill  of  fare." 

One  day  a  representative  of  a  scientific  publica- 
tion, after  examining  the  exhibit  and  taking  lunch, 
expressed  satisfaction  that  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life  he  had  been  scientifically  fed.    The  following  day 
be  returned  to  say  that,  while  dining  the  evening 
•)cfore,  he  had  mentioned  the  Rumford  Kitchen  to 
i  lady  who  sat  beside  him.    Thinking  she  would  be 
nterested  in  some  of  its  scientific  aspects,  he  told 
icr  about  the  bills  of  fare,  saying  that  "one  could   I 
see   from   them    the   amount   of   carbohydrates    and    1 
proteids  in  the  food,  and  also  its  value  in  calories."    1 
Fhe  lady  interrupted  to   say   that  she  knew  those 
things  were  found  in  food  by  the  aid  of  the  micro- 
scope, but  for  her  part  she  would  prefer  not  to  know 
>he  was  eating  them. 

But  it  all  sank  into  the  public  mind,  and  all  the 
nore  deeply  because  the  public  mind  was  quite  empty 
)f  such  information  and  ready  to  absorb.  The 


226  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Rumford  Kitchen  was  the  first  attempt  to  demon- 
strate by  simple  methods  to  the  people  in  general 
the  meaning  of  the  terms,  proteids,  carbohydrates, 
calories,  and  the  fact  that  there  are  scientific  prin- 
ciples underlying  nutrition.  At  a  time  when  laymen 
knew  almost  nothing  as  to  the  composition  of  food, 
and  about  foods  in  their  relation  to  the  human  body, 
this  enterprise  laid  the  foundation  for  knowledge 
which  we  now  consider  almost  as  fundamental  to  a 
general  education  as  the  "three  R's." 

But  a  still  more  important  outgrowth  of  the 
New  England  Kitchen  was  a  plan  for  serving  school 
lunches  in  Boston.  Up  to  the  year  1894,  the  privi- 
lege of  serving  food  to  the  high  school  children  of 
the  city  had  been  given  to  the  school  janitors,  who 
found  it  a  valuable  perquisite.  Now  janitors  are 
useful  in  their  place,  of  course,  but  they  know  little, 
as  a  rule,  about  the  science  of  nutrition,  and  the  time 
came  when  it  seemed  wise  to  place  the  matter  of 
school  lunches  in  other  hands.  Looking  about  for 
some  one  to  take  charge,  the  School  Committee 
entered  into  negotiations  with  the  New  England 
Kitchen  with  a  view  to  having  food  sent  out  to  vari- 
ous schools  from  this  as  a  central  plant.  But  this 
involved  a  large  outlay  of  money,  and  again  a  public- 
spirited  person  with  confidence  in  Mrs.  Richards 
came  to  her  aid.  Mrs.  William  V.  Kellen  gave  the 
money  required  for  buying  the  apparatus  necessary 
for  the  new  work,  and  the  experiment  of  sending  out 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE 

lunches  began.  The  revolution,  of  course,  was  not 
effected  without  difficulties,  and  when  the  New  Eng- 
land Kitchen  undertook  the  task  it  entered  upon 
troublous  times.  The  janitors  were,  many  of  them, 
naturally  displeased  and  loath  to  give  the  help  and 
cooperation  which  were  almost  indispensable.  Then, 
too,  the  School  Committee,  for  some  reason,  was 
unwilling  to  have  the  experiment  begin  in  one  school 
only,  but  insisted  that  it  should  be  made  in  all  or 
none.  Never  was  there  such  quick  action  needed, 
never  such  pressing  of  available  workers  into  the 
service.  The  rooms  provided  were,  as  a  rule,  in  the 
basement  and  inconvenient,  and  the  time  allowed  for 
serving  the  lunches  very  short.  Shops  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  schools  tried  to  hold  on  to  their  trade 
by  posting  such  signs  as  this,  "Here  you  can  get 
what  you  want  to  eat,  and  not  what  the  School 
Committee  says  you  must."  But  success  came  in  the 
end,  and  the  present  New  England  Kitchen,  which 
though  under  entirely  different  management,  that  of 
the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union,  is 
a  direct  outgrowth  of  the  old,  and  is  now  serving 
lunches  to  about  five  thousand  high  school  pupils 
daily. 

As  a  result  of  this  experience  and  pioneer  work, 
Mrs.  Richards  became  an  authority  on  school  lunches, 
and  was  consulted  on  the  subject  by  school  superin- 
tendents and  others  interested  in  education  in  all 
parts  of  the  country.  It  was  at  her  suggestion  that 


228  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

the  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, "The  Daily  Meals  of  School  Children,"  was 
written,  and  her  little  pamphlet,  "Good  Luncheons 
for  Rural  Schools  without  a  Kitchen,"  has  had  a 
wide  circulation  and  has  been  of  good  service  to 
country  schools. 

As  a  result,  too,  of  her  work  in  the  New  England 
and  Rumford  Kitchens,  Mrs.  Richards  was  consulted 
with  reference  to  the  diet  in  a  very  large  number  of 
institutions,  hospitals,  insane  asylums,  and  schools. 
In  some  cases  she  took  actual  charge,  in  order  to 
learn  conditions  and  suggest  changes.  In  this  work 
she  had  the  cooperation  of  Miss  Sarah  E.  Wentworth, 
who  had  succeeded  Mrs.  Abel  in  charge  of  the  New 
England  Kitchen.  She  was  continually  asked  to 
.recommend  experts  in  food,  and  it  was  largely 
through  her  influence  that  positions  of  dignity  for 
educated  women  in  connection  with  the  preparation 
of  foods  in  institutions  were  created  and  the  new 
profession  of  "Dietitian"  developed.  Her  office  be- 
came a  veritable  bureau  of  information  on  the 
subject. 

In  consequence,  too,  of  her  work  in  the  New 
England  and  Rumford  Kitchens,  Mrs.  Richards  be- 
came connected  with  the  nutrition  investigations  of 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture.  In 
1887,  the  passage  by  Congress  of  the  Hatch  Act 
made  possible  the  establishment  of  an  agricultural 
experiment  station  in  each  state  and  territory,  and 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE  229 

the  establishment  of  the  Office  of  Experiment  Sta- 
tions in  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  as  a  central 
agency  for  promoting  the  interests  of  the  experiment 
stations,  quite  naturally  followed.  Professor  W.  O. 
Atwater,  who  had  worked  very  effectively  for  the 
whole  movement,  was  made  first  director  of  this 
central  office. 

Professor  Atwater  had  long  been  interested  in 
the  study  of  problems  of  human  nutrition  by  experi- 
mental methods,  and  believed  that  such  work  should 
be  fostered  by  the  federal  government — a  project 
which  enlisted  the  sympathies  and  support  of  broad- 
minded  men  and  women,  and  which  culminated  in 
1894  in  the  establishment  of  the  nutrition  investi- 
gations of  the  Office  of  Experiment  Stations  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  with  funds  specially 
appropriated  by  Congress  for  the  purpose.  Of  this 
enterprise  Professor  Atwater,  as  director  of  the 
Office  of  Experiment  Stations,  was  given  charge. 

In  this  same  year  (1894)  Mrs.  Richards,  with 
Mr.  Atkinson,  prepared,  at  Professor  Atwater's 
request,  a  pamphlet,  "Suggestions  Regarding  the 
Cooking  of  Food,"  published  by  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  (Mrs.  Richards's  contribution  being  a 
discussion  of  "The  Nutritive  Value  of  Common  Food 
Materials"),  which,  although  it  was  not  issued  as  one 
of  the  then  recently  established  series  of  Farmers' 
Bulletins,  was  like  them  in  its  scope,  and  may  be 
fairly  classed  as  one  of  the  first  of  the  popular  bulle- 


230  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

tins  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  on  nutrition 
which  have  become  such  an  important  factor  in  public 
education. 

The  first  technical  bulletin  issued  as  a  result  of 
the  nutrition  investigations  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  (Bulletin  21  of  the  Office  of  Experi- 
ment Stations)  was  entitled,  "Methods  and  Results 
of  Investigations  on  the  Chemistry  and  Economy  of 
Food,"  and  contains  as  one  of  its  important  sections 
a  summary  of  investigations  by  Mrs.  Richards  and 
Mrs.  Abel  which  have  to  do  with  the  essentials  for 
good  cooking  apparatus,  the  cookery  of  meat,  the 
composition  of  beef,  beef  tea,  etc.,  pea  soup,  and 
the  keeping  qualities  of  broth.  The  data  summarized 
are  taken  from  the  reports  of  Mrs.  Richards  and 
Mrs.  Abel  to  the  Trustees  of  the  Elizabeth  Thomp- 
son Fund,  who  in  1889  to  1890  had  made  a  grant 
from  this  fund  for  experiments  upon  cooking  which 
was  supplemented  by  private  gifts  for  the  same 
purpose. 

Other  work  by  Mrs.  Richards,  which  appears  in 
publications  of  the  Office  of  Experiment  Stations, 
is  a  paper  entitled,  "Dietary  Studies  in  Philadelphia 
and  Chicago,  1892-1893,"  with  Miss  Amelia  Shap- 
leigh  as  joint  author.  This  paper  reports  the  re- 
sults of  observations  as  to  the  food  consumption  and 
dietary  customs  of  families  with  small  incomes  living 
in  thickly  congested  districts,  the  observations  hav- 
ing been  made  at  the  instance  of  the  College  Settle- 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE 

merit  Association,  the  primary  purpose  being  "to 
obtain  reliable  information  regarding  the  diet  of  the 
people  of  those  regions,  which  could  be  used  in 
the  efforts  to  help  them  to  improve  their  material 
condition." 

Probably  the  greatest  antagonism  which  Mrs. 
Richards  aroused  in  the  course  of  her  life  was  in 
connection  with  her  efforts  to  improve  the  quality 
of  food  served  in  public  institutions,  educational  and 
philanthropic,  and  to  make  the  diet  contribute  to 
efficiency.  Her  attitude  is  easy  to  understand.  She 
saw  that  an  enormous  fraction  of  available  human 
energy  was  being  used  in  raising,  transporting,  pre- 
paring, and  serving  food,  and  it  seemed  to  her  intol- 
erable that,  after  its  preparation  had  cost  so  much, 
food  should  again  take  a  great  toll  from  the  people 
in  sickness  and  in  wasted  and  inefficient  lives.  In 
her  own  case  she  studied  carefully  the  relation  of 
food  to  working  power.  It  is  said  that  once  when 
she  was  staying  at  a  seacoast  resort  and  apparently 
enjoying  a  few  days  of  rest  after  a  summer  full  of 
very  engrossing  work,  she  came  down  to  breakfast 
one  morning  in  a  very  resolute  way,  saying,  much 
to  the  surprise  of  her  friends,  that  she  had  been 
making  a  pig  of  herself.  "I  have  just  been  living 
for  the  moment  and  eating  what  I  liked  rather  than 
what  was  good  for  me.  Now  I  shall  confine  myself 
entirely  to  the  proper  food  for  brain  work,  and  I 
shall  set  myself  to  writing  the  paper  that  I  ought 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

to  have  been  at  work  upon,  and  shall  make  myself 
do  it  in  half  the  time  that  I  should  have  given  to  it, 
to  make  up  for  my  days  of  idleness." 

No  wonder  that  with  this  strict  discipline  of  self 
she  should  have  been  impatient  at  the  sight  of  so 
much  suffering  caused  by  careless,  haphazard  ways 
of  eating.  She  saw,  as  we  all  do,  that  the  time  must 
come  when  the  problems  of  nutrition  and  food  will 
be  reduced  to  scientific  principles,  when  people  will 
use  their  food  supply  with  intelligence,  and  will  regu- 
late diet  and  other  living  conditions  in  order  to 
maintain  the  highest  efficiency  in  work.  She  under- 
stood, as  well  as  other  people,  that  the  time  had  not 
arrived,  but  she  knew  that  it  could  be  hastened  if  all 
the  people  would  work  together,  some  in  laboratories, 
some  preparing  foods,  and  all  making  careful  studies 
of  the  relation  of  their  food  to  the  amount  of  work 
they  were  able  to  do.  A  college  lunchroom,  for 
example,  which  strove  merely  to  appeal  to  the  palate 
fell  far  short  of  her  ideal.  She  wished  it  to  be  an 
experiment  station.  But  being  greatly  ahead  of  her 
times,  she  needed  constantly  to  be  reminded  that  the 
world  in  general  moved  slowly — very  much  more 
slowly  in  its  thought  and  in  its  practice  than  she 
did — and  that  in  reality  the  college  lunchroom  which 
had  reached  the  point  of  supplying  palatable  food 
attractively  served  is  far  ahead  of  its  time. 

It  was  never,  however,  the  time  spent  in  making 
food  attractive  or  palatable  that  troubled  her,  but 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE  233 

rather  the  fact  that  people  were  content  to  stop  at 
this  point,  and  to  have  so  small  a  fraction  of  the 
energy  to  which  she  believed  they  were  entitled,  and 
to  do  so  small  a  part  of  the  work  which  they  might 
do  toward  making  the  world  better.  In  lecturing  on 
foods,  she  once  looked  up  from  her  paper  to  say: 
"Do  I  not  hear  a  whisper  running  from  one  to 
another  of  you,  'All  this  new-fangled  talk  is  very 
well  to  preach  for  effect,  but  I  have  always  eaten 
just  what  I  wanted  to,  and  I  am  still  alive'?  True, 
since  you  are  here  before  me,  but  have  you  accom- 
plished all  in  life  that  you  might  have  accomplished, 
have  you  had  each  day  your  full  share  of  heat  units 
converted  into  energy,  do  you  know  what  it  is  to 
be  full  of  health  and  life?" 

In  1899  she  wrote  to  a  woman  who  was  greatly 
interested  in  the  problems  of  institutional  manage- 
ment: "I  believe  the  greatest  need  of  intelligent 
persons  today  is  a  right  attitude  of  mind  towards 
food  and  its  importance  to  the  development  of  the 
highest  powers  of  the  human  race.  I  believe,  with 
Professor  S.  H.  Patten,  that  the  well-to-do  classes 
are  being  eliminated  by  their  diet,  to  the  detriment 
of  social  progress,  and  they  and  not  the  poor  are  the 
most  in  need  of  missionary  work.  This  right  attitude 
of  mind  will  not  be  gained  so  long  as  schools,  col- 
leges, and  universities  continue  to  ignore  the  function 
of  the  body  in  providing  the  machinery  for  the  mind 
to  use.  At  present  it  is  like  putting  a  highly  trained 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

engineer  into  a  mill  with  rusty  and  antiquated  appa- 
ratus, and  then  blaming  him  for  not  turning  out 
good  products.  As  I  have  been  saying  to  college 
audiences  all  winter,  I  believe  that  one  year  out  of 
the  four  could  be  saved  if  students  knew  how  to 
make  the  most  of  themselves,  but  there  is  no  one  to 
teach  them.  I  hold  the  colleges  guilty  that  they 
have  not  seized  upon  the  knowledge  already  at  hand 
and  applied  it,  in  the  way  of  physical  training  and 
education,  instead  of  pursuing  the  present  plan  of 
cruelty  to  animals  in  urging  on,  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet  as  it  were,  a  mind  housed  in  an  under- 
nourished body,  which  will  have  its  revenge.  For  I 
believe  that  education  alone  will  bring  the  food  ques- 
tion from  the  dark,  secluded  corners  of  life  to  the 
sunlight  of  right  thinking,  and  therefore  I  am  bend- 
ing all  my  energies  toward  public  school  teaching 
of  the  right  sort.  Meanwhile  I  am  waiting  for  the 
authorities  of  some  college  to  show  that  they  are 
up-to-date  and  are  willing  to  put  the  food  depart- 
ment on  a  level  with  the  Greek  or  mathematics,  by 
appointing  a  Professor  of  Hygiene  and  Sanitation 
and  teaching  the  student  the  value  of  a  sound  body 
as  well  as  of  a  bright  mind." 

At  another  time  she  said,  in  words  which  leave 
little  room  for  misunderstanding,  "In  the  twentieth 
century  it  will  be  held  a  criminal  offense  for  a  col- 
lege to  lure  students  to  its  halls  under  the  pretense 
of  education,  and  then  slowly  poison  them  by  bad 
air  and  poor  food." 


MISSIONARY  OF  SCIENCE  235 

It  is  evident  from  the  story  of  the  New  England 
and  Rumford  Kitchens  and  of  the  serving  of  school 
lunches  that  Mrs.  Richards  early  allowed  her  philan- 
thropic and  altruistic  interests  to  call  her  away  from 
the  pursuit  of  pure  science.  For  this  she  was  fre- 
quently criticized;  but  she,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
her  own  criticisms  to  make.  She  once  said:  "The 
sanitary  research  worker  in  the  laboratory  and  field 
has  gone  nearly  to  the  limit  of  his  value.  He  will 
soon  be  smothered  in  his  own  work  if  no  one  takes 
it."  She  wanted  to  make  applications  of  the  knowl- 
edge he  was  turning  out  to  every  problem  of  human 
life.  Of  herself  she  said,  "Research  has  to  step  one 
side  when  I  feel  the  pressure  of  sociologic  progress." 

It  is  doubtful  if  she  was  ever  out  of  sympathy 
intellectually  with  the  painstaking  methods  of  pure 
science,  though  she  was  temperamentally  unsuited 
for  the  routine  details  of  such  work  herself.  There 
were  times,  however,  when  with  her  clear  understand- 
ing of  pressing  needs  she  manifested  some  impatience 
with  the  slowness  of  scientifically  trained  people  to 
make  application  of  known  facts.  She  seems  to  have 
had  before  her  always,  on  the  one  hand,  the  vision 
of  a  world  full  of  sickness  and  suffering,  and  of  a 
people  failing,  because  of  preventable  ills,  to  reach 
their  highest  efficiency  and  greatest  usefulness;  and 
on  the  other,  a  great  mass  of  knowledge  and  facts 
which,  if  they  could  be  properly  used  and  applied, 
would  serve  to  relieve  the  suffering  and  prevent  this 


236  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

waste  of  energy.  She  saw  the  need  of  a  chain  of 
workers  extending  from  the  laboratory  to  the  people, 
and  she  was  ready  and  anxious  to  find  and  keep  her 
place  in  the  chain.  If  others  had  found  their  places 
and  had  filled  them  as  unselfishly  and  as  toilfully  as 
she  did,  there  would  have  been  no  gaps  in  the  chain, 
no  failure  of  science  to  serve  humanity. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

IN    JOURNEYINGS    OFTEN 

EVENTS  were  now  fast  leading  up  to  the  organ- 
ization of  the  Home  Economics  movement,  which 
may  be  considered  the  crowning  labor  of  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards's  life,  because  it  brought  together  her  number- 
less lines  of  work  and  directed  them  toward  a  well- 
defined  end — education  for  right  living.  In  the 
perfect  foundation  which  she  had  been  laying,  though 
unconsciously,  for  leadership  in  this  movement,  travel 
as  well  as  work  had  had  a  part.  For  this  reason 
there  have  been  brought  together  in  this  chapter 
extracts  from  letters  which  she  wrote  on  journeys 
taken  during  the  period  when  the  many  activities 
described  in  the  previous  chapters  were  being  carried 
on.  Fortunately  these  letters  show  not  only  how 
wide  an  acquaintance  with  people  and  with  social 
and  educational  movements  she  brought  to  her  later 
labors,  but  also  her  keen  enjoyment  of  travel.  They 
reveal,  therefore,  her  serious  purposes  and  also  her- 
self, with  all  her  boundless  joy  in  living. 

In  speaking  of  her  journeyings  she  once  said  that 
she  had  traveled  "only  as  each  year  had  brought 
its  special  investigations."  She  seldom  went  to  a 

237 


238  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

place  because  it  was  a  popular  resort  or  because 
it  contained  things  beautiful  or  interesting  to  see, 
but  almost  always  in  connection  with  some  special 
work  either  of  her  own  or  of  Professor  Richards's. 
Arrived,  she  saw  more  than  most  people  see,  for 
she  had  eyes  for  its  geological  formation  and  its 
minerals,  its  meteorological  conditions,  its  trees  and 
flowers  in  their  botanical  relations  as  well  as  in  their 
beauty,  its  water  supply,  its  peculiar  sanitary  prob- 
lems, its  engineering  projects,  and  its  educational 
advancement.  To  follow  her  travels,  therefore,  is 
to  follow  her  in  her  labors,  her  interests,  and  her 
thought. 

During  the  vacations  of  1872  and  1873,  while 
she  was  a  student  at  the  Institute  of  Technology,  she 
took  journeys  which  in  her  early  enthusiasm  she 
called  "scientific  expeditions."  The  first  was  to  the 
St.  Lawrence  River  country  and  the  second  to  Nova 
Scotia. 

GOUVERNEUR,    NEW    YORK, 

August  5,  1872. 

You  will  wonder  how  I  came  here.  .  .  .  With  the 
teacher  of  mineralogy  in  the  Girls'  High  School, 
Boston,  I  have  been  attempting  a  scientific  vacation 
— not  at  all  rivalling  Agassiz,  you  know,  for  it's 
only  "two  women,"  but  just  to  see  whether  "two 
women"  could  do  anything.  We  say,  now  on  the 
eve  of  our  departure  for  home,  "Yes,  they  can." 
We  have  been  four  weeks  in  Maine,  Canada,  New 
York — visiting  the  mineral  locations,  obtaining 


IN  JOURNEYINGS  OFTEN  239 

specimens  and  studying  them  in  their  native  beds. 
We  have  visited  alone  lead,  copper,  tin,  silver,  gold 
and  iron  mines,  been  courteously  treated  by  all, 
not  tenderly  as  ladies,  but  no  one  has  put  a  bar  in 
our  way.  We  have  taken  a  horse  and  driven  about 
from  place  to  place  with  hammer  and  chisel  and 
botany  press,  etc.  The  experiment  seems  a  perfect 
success — we  are  strong  and  black  as  gypsies- 
being  out  of  doors  all  the  time. 

ST.  Louis  HOTEL,  QUEBEC, 

August  12,  1872. 

Here  we  are  in  a  pouring  rain,  quartered  in  a  very 
elegant  apartment  going  to  bed  for  a  sound  night's 
sleep.  Yesterday  we  dined  in  a  log  house  or  what 
was  very  near  it,  unfinished  boards  at  least,  used 
only  during  haying  for  the  farm  hands ;  the  table 
unpainted,  leaves  not  up,  no  cloth,  old  blue  ware,  a 
plate  of  three  biscuit  large  as  saucers  of  the  "black 
bread"  variety,  a  saucer  of  brown  sugar  for  the  tea, 
milk  and  "yarb"  tea  (very  likely  English  Break- 
fast). We  dined  at  12.  Today  we  dined  at  6, 
small  square  tables  covered  with  finest  damask, 
printed  bill  of  fare  with  six  courses,  waiters  in  "full 
dress,"  swallow  tailed  coats.  .  .  .  We  have  had  varied 
experiences  since  I  wrote,  mostly  very  pleasant. 
Yesterday  I  had  the  pleasure  of  driving  all  day,  one 
of  the  finest  horses  I  ever  saw,  and  visiting  three 
copper  mines,  getting  a  fine  lot  of  specimens  and 
learning  a  great  deal  about  the  country  and  mining. 


240  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

The  following  year  she  made  a  scientific  pil- 
grimage. In  July,  1874,  in  company  again  with 
Miss  Capen,  she  went  to  Northumberland,  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  Joseph  Priestley  is  buried,  the  occasion 
being  a  Chemical  Centennial  in  honor  of  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of  oxygen. 

In  1875  occurred  her  marriage  to  Professor  Rich- 
ards and  the  unique  wedding  trip  with  his  class  in 
mining  engineering. 

TRURO,  NOVA  SCOTIA, 
June  13,  1875. 

We  have  had  a  prosperous  week  and  have  carried 
out  all  our  plans.  I  have  been  resting  and  am  very 
nicely  and  I  think  Robert  is  none  the  worse,  although 
he  has  the  care  of  the  expedition.  We  have  visited 
the  Albert  mine,  the  famous  Joggins  and  the  Arcadia 
Iron  mines.  I  have  been  the  botanist  of  the  party. 
We  are  just  in  time  for  the  early  Spring  flowers. 
In  St.  John  the  trees  were  just  starting;  here  they 
are  just  blooming.  We  have  not  exactly  lived  in 
clover,  but  have  not  been  very  badly  off  yet. 

In  1876  she  went  abroad  with  Professor  Richards, 
chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  laboratories,  mines, 
and  smelting  works,  and  buying  chemical  apparatus 
for  the  Woman's  Laboratory. 

ZURICH,  July  16,  1876. 

We  spent  an  afternoon  and  night  in  Interlaken 
with  Professor  Crafts  and  his  wife  and  there  saw 


IN   JOURXEYINGS  OFTEN  241 

sunrise  on  the  Jungfrau.  It  was  the  finest  thing  I 
ever  saw.  It  was  so  hard  to  come  away  and  not  go 
to  the  mountain  when  we  were  within  fifteen  miles. 
The  Swiss  wood  carvers  live  in  this  village.  More 
than  a  thousand  people  work  at  it  here.  The  life 
is  so  sweet  and  peaceful  and  so  beautiful  in  its  sur- 
roundings and  simplicity  that  Robert  wished  he  could 
live  there  always.  The  little  Swiss  chalets  are  ex- 
ceedingly picturesque,  and  they  look  so  neat  and 
(•Iran.  The  women  and  children  are  bright  and  smart 
and  they  don't  waste  time  in  fine  parlors  and  flounces. 
They  can  turn  hay  or  carve  wood  and  speak  three 
languages. 

COLOGNE,  July  22,  1876. 

It  is  so  strange  to  be  where  everything  has  been 
made  from  earliest  time.  We  cannot  realize  it,  we 
whose  grandfathers  conquered  the  wilderness,  what 
it  is  to  live  where  the  same  houses  and  streets  have 
hi  in  just  the  same  for  a  thousand  years  and  to  live 
on  a  spot  inhabited  for  more  than  two  thousand 
years. 


Nature  has  done  much  for  our  country  and  man 
is  rivalling  nature  as  was  perhaps  natural  in  a  coun- 
try where  Nature,  as  it  were,  defied  man.  A  new  race 
is  springing  up  to  whom  the  labors  of  Hercules  will 
not  seem  impossible.  But  I  must  not  ramble  on  this 
way.  I  am  an  enthusiastic  Yankee  and  I  am  afraid 
I  am  of  the  present  age  which  tears  away  the  veil  to 
see  what  is  behind. 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

DRESDEN,  August  6,  1876. 

We  are  all  bewitched  with  Dresden.  The  Gallery 
of  Paintings  is  a  revelation  to  us,  the  pictures  are 
so  beautiful.  I  want  so  many  of  them  in  photographs 
that  Robert  is  laughing  at  my  extravagance.  I  have 
been  so  good  until  now,  but  now  I  am  spending  such 
a  lot  of  money. 

LEIPSIC,  Monday,  August  7. 

We  arrived  here  this  evening.  Walked  out  and 
took  in  the  general  features  of  the  famous  university 
town  and  remarked  on  the  variety  of  its  odors. 
[Mrs.  Richards  had  what  has  been  called  an  "edu- 
cated nose."] 

BRUSSELS,  August  13. 

At  Liege  we  spent  one  day  in  visiting  the  immense 
iron  and  zinc  works.  Then  we  came  on  to  Brussels 
yesterday.  There  we  visited  the  International  Exhi- 
bition of  Hygiene  and  Remedial  Appliances,  and  saw 
surgeon's  bandages,  hospital  cars,  health  clothing, 
etc.  .  .  .  On  our  return  home  we  shall  go  to  the  Cen- 
tennial exhibition  at  Philadelphia.  We  shall  remain 
about  a  week  I  suppose  and  I  want  you  [her  mother] 
to  go  with  us.  I  have  decided  to  give  you  that  pleas- 
ure instead  of  the  checked  silk  dress  which  I  intended 
to  bring  you. 

No  letters  written  from  the  Centennial  Exhibition 
have  been  found;  but  years  after  she  visited  it, 
Mrs.  Richards  said  in  a  little  leaflet  entitled,  "Ex- 
hibits and  the  Home  Economics  Movement":  "To 
the  casual  onlooker  the  growth  of  the  domestic 


IX  JOURXEYIXGS  OFTEX 

science  cult  may  seem  to  have  been  fortuitous  or 
spasmodic  or  sporadic  even,  but  there  is  a  distinct 
trail  back  to  the  Philadelphia  Exposition  of  1876, 
when  America  was  awakened  to  its  own  deficiencies 
in  the  culinary  art,  and  in  house  furnishing  and 
decoration  among  other  things.  These  deficiencies 
clearly  indicated  the  necessity  for  a  wider  knowledge 
of  science  in  household  management.  The  manual 
training  idea,  developed  from  the  work  of  Russia 
and  Sweden  shown  at  this  exposition,  gave  impetus 
and  opportunity  to  American  adaptation.  Many 
lines  of  progress  started  in  this  world  exposition  of 

1876." 

September  5,  1877. 

I  expect  to  get  my  vacation  in  going  to  the 
Tennessee  exhibition  as  juror  on  Education  in 
October. 

In  1873  Miss  Swallow  had  joined  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  (A3S 
she  used  to  write  it  for  short),  and  in  1877  she  was 
elected  a  fellow.  From  that  time  on,  many  of  her 
trips  were  to  its  annual  meetings. 

GARDINER,  MAINE,  1879. 

We  have  just  been  to  the  American  Association 
meeting  at  Saratoga.  I  appealed  to  the  chemists 
there  to  help  in  this  matter  of  Household  Chemistry. 
I  seem  to  have  got  drawn  into  that  track  now  and 
must  follow  it  out  whether  or  no.  It  is  an  open  field 


244  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

but  much  study  will  be  required  in  it.  I  am  to  pre- 
pare a  paper,  on  the  ingredients  of  food  liable  to 
adulteration,  this  winter. 

During  the  summers  of  1881  and  1882  she  worked 
with  Professor  Richards  in  Northern  Michigan. 

CALUMET,  MICHIGAN, 
July  8,  1881. 

I  have  the  laboratory  work  about  started  and  have 
just  enough  to  do  to  keep  me  from  being  lonely.  I 
have  a  young  man  to  wait  on  me  and  I  shall  find  it 
hard  to  come  back  to  do  my  own  cleaning  up.  In 
fact  it  is  very  good  fun.  The  only  trouble  is  that 
it  looks  as  though  I  were  not  going  to  see  Robert  but 
once  a  week.  He  went  down  to  the  mill  at  the  Lake 
on  Wednesday  and  is  not  coming  back  until  Satur- 
day night.  However,  it  is  only  five  miles  and  the  ore 
cars  go  up  and  down  several  times  a  day  and  besides 
there  is  telephone  communication  between  the  two 
offices.  On  the  wrhole  things  are  going  as  well  as  can 
be  expected  and  we  have  reason  to  be  satisfied.  It 
will  be  good  experience  for  both  of  us.  I  only  hope 
you  [her  mother]  will  keep  comfortable.  .  .  . 

This  is  Yankee  land  even  if  it  is  so  far  away. 

CALUMET,  June  17,  1882. 
[To  her  mother] 

I  wish  you  could  take  one  walk  through  these 
woods.  Such  a  profusion  of  wild  flowers  and  such 
luxuriant  growth  I  never  saw  before.  I  have  been 


IX  JOURNEYINGS  OFTEN  245 

out  nearly  every  day  and  my  room  is  full  of  bottles 
and  tumblers  of  bloom.  I  have  found  some  25  kinds 
already ;  most  of  them  are  familiar  friends  but  two 
are  new  to  me. 

DENVER,  COLORADO, 

August  20,  1882. 

Here  I  am  enjoying  my  first  glimpse  of  the  West 
and  of  the  old  Rocky  Mountains.  Miss  Gushing 
(Vassar  1874)  and  Miss  Minns  came  to  Calumet 
about  the  first  of  August,  and  staid  with  me  two 
weeks.  Then  we  went  to  Duluth,  thence  by  the 
Northern  Pacific  as  far  as  Fargo.  We  spent  such 
an  interesting  day  there.  We  rode  through  the  wheat 
fields  which  extend  for  thirty  miles  and  in  one  day 
we  gathered  67  new  flowers.  We  came  down  first  for 
a  day  in  St.  Paul,  then  a  day  in  Omaha,  then  on  here. 
We  enjoyed  it  all.  Miss  Minns  and  I  had  never  seen 
the  plains  and  we  got  much  excited  over  the  flowers. 
We  start  on  Monday  morning  for  ten  days  among 
these  lovely  mountains  with  the  Institute  of  Mining 
Engineers.  We  shall  see  nearly  all  the  nice  things. 
I  go  directly  back  to  Calumet  to  finish  my  work 
there.  [In  1879  Mrs.  Richards  had  been  elected  a 
member  of  the  American  Institute  of  Mining  Engi- 
neers in  recognition  of  her  scientific  work.  She  was 
the  only  woman  ever  elected  to  active  membership.] 

Ox  THE  TRAIN, 
September,  1882. 

I  have  conic  back  from  the  West  with  the  feeling 
that  our  Eastern  people  make  a  mistake  to  go  to 


2-46  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Europe  year  after  year  and  never  to  really  visit  our 
Western  Country.  The  enterprise  and  bold  venture 
of  the  people  and  the  lofty  mountains  and  deep 
canons  and  vast  plains  seem  to  me  to  be  far  more 
interesting  than  the  sleepy  ignorant  peasant  living 
on  black  bread  with  no  thoughts  or  ideas  above  it, 
or  than  the  piles  of  stone  already  crumbling  at  the 
base  before  the  top  is  finished.  When  I  emigrate 
from  New  England  I  think  I  shall  go  West,  where 
there  is  a  little  "go"  in  the  air. 

In  1883  she  went  with  Professor  Richards  to 
Virginia,  where  he  was  holding  a  movable  School  of 
Mines.  That  year  she  went  ahead  of  the  party  and 
arranged  its  itinerary. 

Low  MOOR,  VIRGINIA, 

June   19,  1883. 

A  good  deal  has  happened  in  the  last  twenty-four 
hours.  When  I  stopped  writing  we  got  on  to  the 
flat  car  and  were  taken  down  by  gravity,  coasting 
the  three  miles.  It  was  a  novel  experience  for  most. 
Then  we  started  up  suddenly  to  go  into  a  cave  just 
opened  in  getting  limestone  where  there  were  iron 
ore  stalactites  as  well  as  calcite  ones.  It  was  the 
roughest  trip  I  ever  took.  I  went  up  a  rope  some 
thirty  feet  almost  hand  over  hand  and  then  stumbled 
over  the  uneven  ground  of  the  freshly  opened  cave. 
I  got  muddy  from  head  to  foot  but  we  got  some 
lovely  things  and  it  was  a  spicy  adventure,  especially 
the  coming  down. 


IN  JOURXEYIXGS  OFTEN  247 

GARDINER,  MAINE, 
September,  1883. 

We  are  having  a  few  days  on  the  Kennebec  at  my 
husband's  old  home.  I  dare  say  I  have  written  to 
you  before  from  here.  It  is  very  lovely  although  the 
drought  has  left  the  hills  brown  and  is  taking  the 
leaves  from  the  trees  very  fast.  Now  and  then  we 
see  some  brilliant  tree  but  I  fear  the  colors  will  not 
be  fine. 

Our  occupation  here  is  social  gayety,  strange  to 
say,  tea  parties  and  dinner  parties,  evening  after 
evening,  or  excursions  by  water  or  land.  The  family 
has  a  steam  launch  carrying  some  twenty-nine  per- 
sons which  is  very  convenient  for  excursions.  We 
all  went  down  to  the  sea  at  Booth  Bay  on  Monday. 
It  was  a  perfect  day  and  we  had  five  little  girl 
cousins  to  enliven  the  older  people. 

In  1884,  after  her  appointment  as  Instructor  in 
Sanitary  Chemistry,  Mrs.  Richards  made  a  trip  to 
England  for  the  purpose  of  attending  the  Interna- 
tional Health  Exhibition  at  South  Kensington  and 
to  get  material  which  would  be  of  service  to  her  in 
her  work.  She  was  accompanied  on  this  trip  by 
Miss  Alice  Palmer,  who  had  been  one  of  the  first  stu- 
dents in  the  Woman's  Laboratory.  After  attending 
the  exhibition  they  made  a  trip  to  the  Land  of  the 
Midnight  Sun,  which  Mrs.  Richards  had  long  looked 
forward  to  visiting.  This  was  probably  the  only 
place  she  ever  visited  in  her  life  where  the  days  had 
enough  hours  to  suit  her. 


248  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

The  letters  which  she  wrote  about  the  exhibition 
and  the  conferences  are  not  to  be  found,  and  very 
unfortunately,  for  she  made  constant  references  to 
this  visit  in  later  years,  and  it  seems  in  many  ways 
to  have  marked  an  advance  in  her  thought.  Years 
later  she  wrote:  "I  do  hope  the  Chicago  exposition 
can  make  a  good  showing  in  the  educational  line,  for 
I  have  such  vivid  recollections  of  the  excellence  of 
the  educational  side  of  the  London  Health  Exposition 
in  1884  that  I  know  how  much  we  have  to  do  to  sur- 
pass that.  It  has  been  my  inspiration  ever  since. 
I  do  not  believe  a  school  in  America  can  make  such 
a  showing  of  Domestic  Economy  as  that  in  Belgium, 
nor  a  Normal  School  surpass  that  of  Tokyo,  Japan." 
And  again:  "In  England,  in  1884,  I  saw  young  men 
from  the  universities  in  the  Board  Schools  giving 
instruction  as  to  babies'  milk.  In  America  we  have 
allowed  the  newspapers  and  the  magazines  to  give 
the  public  instruction  that  belongs  to  universities." 

BIRMINGHAM,  June  12. 

The  grand  Educational  Conference  at  the  Health 
Exhibition  is  to  be  held  August  4  to  9  and  I 
must  be  here  then  so  we  shall  be  off  for  Norway 
July  1st.  Tuesday  June  24  I  spent  solid  at  the 
Health  Exhibition. 

STEAMER  ANGELO,  NORTH  SEA, 

July  5,  1884,  8.30  P.M. 

At  the  present  moment  the  sun  is  nearing  the 
horizon  and  sending  to  us  a  broad  path  of  orange- 


IN  JOURNEYINGS  OFTEN  249 

red  light  while  the  gentle  billows  all  around  are 
tinged  with  the  most  beautiful  shades.  The  moon, 
nearly  full,  beams  upon  us  the  other  side.  A  vessel 
with  curiously  shaped  sails  lights  up  just  astern. 
We  have  seen  so  many  vessels  today,  it  seems  not 
at  all  a  desert  waste.  The  craft  are  all  small  but 
very  picturesque  with  their  colored  sails. 

11  P.M.,  July  14,  1884. 

We  are  just  crossing  the  Arctic  Circle.  I  do  not 
see  any  special  ceremonies  going  on  but  I  must  write 
up  today's  journal  on  the  spot.  I  wish  you  all  could 
see  this  landscape.  We  are  making  for  some  high 
islands  which  are  green  nearly  to  their  tops  with 
many  houses  on  the  low  shores.  Directly  behind  there 
is  a  high  snow-capped  range  of  very  serrated  peaks. 
The  quarter  moon  hangs  large  and  bright  a  little 
above  the  horizon  at  an  angle  of  about  45°  from  our 
course.  On  the  left  at  about  the  same  angle  is  a 
low  place  in  the  mountains  which  glows  with  the  sun 
just  below  the  horizon.  It  did  not  disappear  until 
10.15.  The  light  over  all  is  indescribably  beautiful. 
Robert  will  know  a  little  how  it  is  from  our  beauti- 
ful Calumet  sunsets. 

1  o'clock,  July  15. 

We  are  still  sitting  in  the  shelter  of  the  prow 
where  we  were  at  11.  The  sun  is  nearly  rising  and 
the  colors  are  wonderful.  These  two  hours  have 
been  a  succession  of  marvels.  We  have  been  passing 
among  the  strangest  shaped  peaks  and  in  sight  of 
high  mountains,  snow-capped.  It  is  all  so  strangely 
beautiful  that  it  must  be  seen  to  be  at  all  appreciated. 


250  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

1.45  P.M. 

We  are  still  here.  It  has  been  too  delightful  to 
leave.  The  Captain  either  gulled  the  people  or  they 
misunderstood  him  for  we  are  now  just  crossing  the 
Arctic  Circle,  just  as  the  sun  is  going  to  appeal- 
behind  some  high  hills  which  have  hid  it. 

REDRUTH,  August  13,  1884. 

We  reached  Truro  one  hour  late  last  night  about 
9  o'clock.  Found  the  Red  Lion  very  nice  and  his- 
toric, 1631.  This  morning  we  visited  the  museum 
and  the  town,  saw  a  smelting  house  under  repair,  had 
an  hour's  talk  with  the  people,  got  a  good  basketful 
of  specimens  and  took  the  1.30  train  for  this  place, 
where  we  shall  visit  the  Mining  Institute  and  some 
smelting  works  in  operation. 

The  following  letter  was  written  to  Mrs.  Rogers, 
widow  of  the  founder  of  the  Institute  of  Technology, 
who  had  shared  her  husband's  pioneer  labors  and 
retained  after  his  death  a  vital  interest  in  the  Insti- 
tute. Mrs.  Richards  was  always  at  pains  to  keep  her 
informed  about  the  work,  and  used  often  to  spend  a 
few  restful  days  at  her  Newport  home,  which  she 
once  described  as  "within  sound  of  the  breakers, 
away  from  all  sound  of  the  Newport  life." 

GRASS  VALLEY,  CALIFORNIA, 

July  3,  1885. 

We  spent  a  week  in  Denver  and  Boulder  and  a  day 
in  Pueblo  where  there  are  three  of  our  graduates.  .  .  . 


IN  JOURNEYINGS  OFTEN  251 

Our  greatest  trip  was  the  Grand  Canon  of  the 
Colorado  river.  We  did  not  of  course  follow  Powell 
on  his  journey  on  the  river  itself,  which  must  be 
very  dangerous,  so  we  did  not  get  the  full  grandeur 
of  the  gorge,  but  we  saw  more  than  we  could  take 
in  of  the  mighty  cliffs  seamed  with  these  rifts  or 
canons,  in  all  directions.  Since  the  strata  of  sand- 
stone are  left  nearly  horizontal  the  effect  to  the  eye 
is  not  as  impressive  as  the  great  height  would  war- 
rant. For  instance,  standing  at  the  base  of  a  cliff 
4,800  feet  in  almost  perpendicular  height  it  was  very 
hard  to  believe  it  was  half  that  height — only  after 
some  time  and  after  repeated  comparisons  with  the 
shrubs  and  cacti  could  one  at  all  realize  the  immensity 
of  the  rock  enclosing  us.  ... 

The  Yosemite  Valley  is  a  gem  set  in  grandeur.  It 
is  finer  than  I  had  supposed.  The  photographs  do 
not  give  an  adequate  idea  of  it.  It  is,  like  Norwegian 
scenery,  on  too  grand  a  scale  to  be  reduced  to  paper 
size.  But  I  think  the  Trees  have  made  the  deepest 
impression  upon  me.  California  may  well  boast  of 
her  Trees,  and  they  should  be  spelled  with  a  capital 
T  when  they  are  written  about. 

We  have  set  our  faces  eastward  and  are  now  going 
among  the  mines.  We  visited  the  Quicksilver  mine 
of  New  Almaden  and  we  are  now  among  the  gold 
mines.  The  Hydraulic  mines  are  stopped  but  we  find 
many  quartz  veins  still  worked. 

This  place  is  an  ideal  mining  town.  They  have 
plenty  of  water  and  each  house  in  the  village  has  its 
garden  and  shrubbery,  while  large  locust  and  poplar 
trees  line  the  streets.  .  .  . 


252  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Robert  has  been  for  the  most  part  quite  well,  but 
the  long  drives  in  the  sun  seem  to  tire  him  more  than 
they  do  me.  I  am  very  strong  and  seem  to  endure 
all  sorts  of  knocking  about. 

Repeatedly  during  this  trip  she  made  reference 
to  the  strain  upon  Professor  Richards  of  the  travel- 
ing and  of  the  work.  The  fact  is  that  for  many 
years  he  had  been  working  at  too  high  pressure. 
Between  1878  and  1883,  years  of  financial  depression 
for  the  Institute,  he  had  not  only  directed  the  work 
of  his  own  department,  but  filled  the  office  of  secre- 
tary, and  when  he  gave  up  this  extra  work  it  was 
only  to  be  faced  by  large  arrears  in  his  own  profes- 
sional labors.  For  years  he  was  in  low  physical 
condition,  and  the  crisis  came  in  the  fall  of  1887, 
when  he  had  a  long  and  serious  siege  of  typhoid 
pneumonia. 

32  Eliot  Street, 
JAMAICA  PLAIN,  MASSACHUSETTS, 

December  13,  1886. 

Your  letter  came  in  the  week  when  we  dared  to 
hope  that  Professor  Richards  was  really  coming  back 
to  life  after  three  weeks  of  very  dangerous  Typhoid 
Pneumonia.  So  your  imagination  of  the  even  tenor 
of  my  ways  was  partly  correct.  Robert  is  now  down 
stairs  and  doing  very  nicely  indeed  but  he  had  a  hard 
time  of  it,  the  fever  ran  four  weeks  in  all.  I  had  two 
nurses,  sent  mother  away  and  had  a  regular  hospital 
with  hours  strictly  kept  so  that  I  went  out  nearly 


IX  JOURXEYINGS  OFTEN  253 

every  day  for  air  and  nerves.  I  found  it  made  a 
difference  and  I  had  to  keep  my  head  level.  Dr.  Wil- 
liams staid  in  the  house  for  eight  nights  so  I  was 
relieved  of  the  worst  strain. 

I  have  a  very  good  assistant  this  year  and  so  by 
going  in  for  an  hour  or  two  I  could  keep  the  work 
going  on.  We  also  managed  to  plan  Robert's  work 
so  the  students  have  not  suffered.  Of  course  other 
outside  work  has  been  mostly  put  one  side. 

For  several  years  after  this,  Mrs.  Richards  seems 
to  have  contented  herself  with  short  trips.  Pro- 
fessor Richards's  sickness  and  long  convalescence, 
the  sanitary  survey  which  was  then  in  progress,  a 
fall  on  the  rocks  at  the  seashore  which  partially  dis- 
abled her  for  a  long  time,  her  mother's  declining 
health,  and  the  great  pressure  of  work  connected  with 
the  New  England  Kitchen  and  the  School  Lunches 
combined  to  prevent  her  from  going  far  from  home. 
This  was  the  time,  too,  when  she  was  finding  joy  and 
recreation  with  her  beautiful  Duchess,  the  horse  for 
which  she  had  an  affection  that  in  a  weaker  woman 
of  fewer  interests  might  have  seemed  unreasonable. 
A  few  weeks  after  Duchess  died,  she  wrote:  "It  has 
been  a  delightfully  warm,  sunny  day,  but  no  longer 
do  such  days  bring  me  pleasure.  Since  my  beautiful 
Duchess  went  to  the  land  of  perpetual  sunshine  I 
would  rather  it  rained.  I  never  have  been  for  a  drive 
or  walk  even  over  the  old  roads." 


254  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

PROVINCE-TOWN,  July  19,  1887. 

Miss  Capen  came  down  from  Northampton  last 
Thursday  and  I  proposed  to  her  one  of  our  four  day 
trips  to  some  unexplored  country  of  coolness  and 
drives.  We  decided  on  the  Cape  as  quite  unknown 
to  us  although  only  four  hours  from  Boston.  So 
yesterday  morning  we  left  Jamaica  Plain  about  half 
past  seven  and  had  dinner  here.  We  walked  about 
this  queer  old  town  and  then  were  driven  over  to  the 
life  saving  station  across  billows  of  sand,  through 
thickets  of  blueberry,  wild  pear,  beech  and  plums, 
over  cranberry  bogs  and  turf  roads.  It  is  all  new 
and  interesting,  this  out  of  the  way  corner  town,  half 
Portuguese,  half  old  whaling  population  and  queer 
collections  of  houses  looking  as  if  there  had  been  a 
shower  of  houses  and  they  had  staid  where  they  had 
fallen,  as  some  one  has  remarked  of  them.  We  have 
seen  the  curing  of  the  codfish  and  heard  how  the 
Nova  Scotia  fishermen  have  spoiled  trade. 

This  point  is  only  sand,  so  the  vessels  coming 
home  bring  as  ballast  a  load  of  loam  for  the  gardens 
or  of  gravel  for  the  streets  so  that  Provincetown  is 
made  up  of  a  little  of  everywhere. 

In  August,  1888,  Mrs.  Richards  and  Miss  Marian 
Talbot  took  a  carriage  trip  through  the  White 
Mountains,  during  which  Mrs.  Richards  selected  a 
site  for  a  summer  cottage  at  Randolph,  New  Hamp-. 
shire.  Her  account  of  this  journey  written  to  Pro- 
fessor Richards  was  in  the  form  of  a  narrative 
entitled,  "The  Adventures  of  Black  Billv  in  the  White 


IX  JOURXEYIXGS  OFTEN 


255 


Mountains,"  and  was  supposedly  written  by  the  horse 
which  she  drove.  At  the  point,  however,  where 
"Madame  and  Mademoiselle,"  the  two  strange  women 
traveling  alone,  chose  to  climb  mountains,  Black  Billy 
was  dependent  upon  Bruce,  the  collie,  for  informa- 
tion. Bruce  reported: 

"A   preliminary   trial   of   strength   was   made   by 
ascending  Ran          _,  C^~^  —  -s  dolph  Hill  by  a 


&>\ 

fm 


7 


The 

path  through  the  woods  one  and  one-half  miles  and 
then  descending  by  the  road  three  miles.  Madam 
selected  a  house  lot  on  the  Hill  and  she  declared 
she  had  never  seen  so  fine  a  view  of  the  mountains." 
[Mrs.  Richards  bought  the  house  lot  referred  to, 
but  did  not  see  it  again  until  1904,  when  she  built 
on  it  a  cottage  which  she  named  "The  Balsams."] 

"At  6  o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning  the  party 
started  for  the  Mount  Adams  trip.  The  trail,  for 
that  is  all  the  so-called  path  is,  at  first  runs  through 


ELLEN   H.  RICHARDS 


a  meadow  across  Moose  river,  on  stepping  stones, 
then  through  heavy  woods  where  considerable  logging 
has  been  done  so  that  the  guide  could  not 
find  his  own  path.  But  after  climbing 


View  from  "  TJie  Balsams  " 


through  many  fallen  trees  and  wading  several  bogs, 
a  more  solid  ground  was  reached.  Then  every  step 
was  up.  Four  thousand  feet  in  four  miles  means  a 
rise  at  every  foot,  some  of  the  way  steeper  than  old- 
fashioned  back  stairs.  Madam  with  her  155  pounds 


IN   JOURXEYINGS  OFTEN  257 

weight  to  carry  took  frequent  occasions  to  admire 
the  trees  and  moss  and  abundant  Spring  flowers 
when  there  was  no  view  to  exclaim  over  or  no  spring 
of  clear,  cold  water  to  test. 

"Four  hours  brought  the  party  out  to  a  rock 
where  there  were  low  trees  and  alpine  flowers  but 
nothing  to  obstruct  the  view.  Fortunately  clouds 
tempered  the  heat  of  the  sun  without  cutting  off  a 
view  of  the  landscape.  Specimens  of  plants  had  to 
be  gathered  and  12  o'clock  found  the  party  camped 
for  luncheon  at  the  foot  of  an  immense  snow  bank 
which  furnished  a  small  river  of  cool  water. 

"...  The  sharp,  stony  peak  looked  a  great  way 
off.  A  sharp  scramble,  however,  conquered  and  on 
the  topmost  stone  the  eye  commanded  a  view  not  to 
be  forgotten.  The  day  was  a  perfect  success,  a 
delight  to  all." 

The  summer  of  1893  and  much  of  the  following 
autumn  she  spent  at  the  World's  Fair,  superintend- 
ing the  work  of  the  Rumford  Kitchen.  The  Fair 
itself  she  described  in  Whitmanesque  fashion  as  a 
"most  wonderful  exhibition  of  American  brag,  cour- 
age, and  persistence — a  grand  scene — art — archi- 
tecture— in  fact,  everything  good  and  everything 
bad  at  the  same  time." 

During  the  last  fifteen  years  of  her  life,  she  trav- 
eled increasingly,  but  almost  invariably  her  journey- 
ings  were  for  the  purpose  of  lecturing  or  of  attend- 
ing conventions  or  committee  meetings.  In  1886  she 


258  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

had  added  the  American  Public  Health  Association, 
and  about  the  same  time  the  National  Educational 
Association,  to  the  list  of  societies  whose  conventions 
she  faithfully  attended,  and  in  1899  she  started  the 
Lake  Placid  Conference.  The  expenditure  of  money 
and  of  time  involved  in  these  journeys  was  enormous. 
What  others  spend  in  pleasure  trips  she  spent  in 
seeking  the  fellowship  of  people  of  kindred  minds 
and  purposes,  in  this  way  demonstrating  the  strength 
of  her  interest  and  faith  in  the  organizations  to 
which  she  had  given  her  allegiance. 


nl  Club 


CHAPTER 


LAKE    PLACID    CONFERENCE 

THIS  record,  necessarily  incomplete,  and  probably 
further  from  complete  than  even  those  realize  who 
are  most  familiar  with  her  work,  will  serve  to  show 
the  discipline,  the  experience,  the  knowledge,  the 
training,  the  acquaintance  with  people  and  with 
organizations  which  Mrs.  Richards  brought  to  the 
organized  Home  Economics  movement  which  had  its 
beginning  in  the  first  Lake  Placid  Conference  of 
Home  Economics,  held  in  1899. 

In  reviewing  the  work  of  the  Lake  Placid  Confer- 
ence, she  once  said,  "The  movement  took  rise  in  the 
same  realization  of  'the  inconvenience  of  ignorance' 


260  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

that  led  John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  to  the  Indians,  to 
found  a  school  in  1690  Ho  do  away  with  it.'  "  The 
form  of  ignorance  which  in  1899  had  grown  so  in- 
convenient as  to  call  for  a  united  effort  to  "do  away 
with  it"  was  in  connection  with  household  adminis- 
tration under  the  new  conditions  which  great  social 
and  industrial  changes  had  brought.  "The  flow  of 
industry  had  passed  on  and  had  left  idle  the  loom 
in  the  attic,  the  soap  kettle  in  the  shed."  The  form 
of  the  home  was  being  gradually  but  surely  changed, 
not,  however,  because  of  intelligent  direction  from 
within,  but  through  pressure  from  without.  The 
thoughtless  were  content  to  allow  the  changes  to 
proceed,  lead  where  they  would,  but  the  wise  were 
anxious.  They  began  to  ask,  to  use  Mrs.  Richards's 
own  words:  "What  are  the  essentials  which  must  be 
retained  in  a  house  if  it  is  to  be  the  home?  What 
work  may  be  done  outside?  What  standards  must 
be  maintained  within?  How  can  the  schools  be  made 
to  help?  What  instruction  should  go  into  the  cur- 
riculum of  the  lower  schools,  and  what  is  the  duty 
of  the  higher  educational  and  professional  schools? 
What  forces  in  the  community  can  be  roused  to 
action  to  secure  for  the  coming  race  the  benefits 
of  material  progress?" 

But  besides  great  needs,  the  times  presented  great 
opportunities.  These  are  best  described,  perhaps,  in 
the  words  of  another  enthusiastic  advocate  of  organ- 
ization in  the  interest  of  home  life,  Professor  W.  O. 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE         261 

Atwater,  who  said,  "The  science  of  household  eco- 
nomics is  in  what  chemists  call  a  state  of  super- 
saturated solution;  it  needs  only  the  insertion  of 
a  needle  point  to  start  a  crystallization."  The 
needle  point  was  inserted  during  a  social  visit  which 
Mrs.  Richards  made  to  the  Lake  Placid  Club  in 
September,  1898.  At  that  time  she  was  asked  to 
speak  to  the  members  of  the  Club  on  the  domestic 
service  problem,  and  out  of  the  discussion  which 
followed  her  address  came  the  determination  to  hold 
an  annual  conference  at  the  Lake  Placid  Club  to 
consider  home  problems. 

Mrs.  Richards's  visit  to  the  Club  has  been  described 
as  "social,"  but  it  had  another  purpose.  As  we 
know,  she  seldom  traveled  merely  for  her  own  pleas- 
ure or,  except  in  cases  of  special  need,  in  order  to 
make  visits  among  her  relatives  and  friends.  In  this 
case  it  happened  that  she  had  been  called  upon  to 
advise  with  Mr.  Melvil  Dewey,  who  at  the  time  was 
the  Director  of  the  State  Library  and  of  Home 
Education  in  New  York  State,  with  reference  to  the 
regents'  examinations.  The  regents  had,  in  1896, 
decided  to  give  Household  Science  a  place  in  the 
examination  tests  which  the  state  makes  for  college 
entrance,  and  in  outlining  the  questions  Mr.  Dewey 
had  turned  to  Mrs.  Richards  for  assistance.  Lake 
Placid  was  the  summer  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dewey, 
and  Mrs.  Richards's  visit,  therefore,  was  something 
more  than  social,  since  it  offered  the  desired  oppor- 


262  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

tunity  to  talk  over  educational  reforms  with  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Dewey;  it  was  a  chance  to  push  forward 
the  battle  line. 

Those  who  loved  Mrs.  Richards,  and  they  were 
many,  like  to  think  that  this  crowning  labor  of  hers 
—  the  organized  Home  Economics  movement — had 
its  beginning  in  a  place  of  marvelous  natural  beauty, 
for  during  her  whole  life  a  Puritan  sense  of  duty 
and  a  Spartan  self-control  had  kept  her  in  stud}7, 
in  office,  and  in  laboratory  when  a  passion  for 
natural  beauty  would  have  led  her  into  the  open 
country.  The  Lake  Placid  Club  lies  on  the  shore  of 
a  quiet  lake,  which  mirrors  the  mountains  and  the 
trees  by  which  it  is  surrounded.  In  this  beautiful 
spot  in  the  heart  of  the  Adirondacks,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Dewey  had  made  a  home  for  themselves,  repro- 
ducing the  comforts  of  their  city  life  and  all  that 
contributes  to  efficiency,  and  leaving  behind  all  that 
encumbers  and  impedes.  The  Club  buildings,  of  which 
their  home  is  one,  as  they  have  increased  in  number 
under  their  wise  direction  (for  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dewey 
have  for  some  years  devoted  their  time  to  the  affairs 
of  the  Lake  Placid  Club),  have  so  found  their  places 
in  the  landscape  as  to  enhance  rather  than  to  destroy 
its  beauty.  The  physical  features  of  the  Club  are 
therefore,  because  of  their  convenience  and  beauty, 
a  constant  object  lesson  in  the  art  of  right  living. 

On  September  19,  1899,  somewhat  more  than  a 
year  after  Mrs.  Richards's  first  visit  to  the  Club,  the 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE         263 

first  Lake  Placid  Conference  on  Home  Economics 
was  held  in  a  room  over  the  boathouse,  which  may 
be  described  as  a  fresh-air  library.  To  call  it  a 
"library"  conveys  the  idea  that  it  was  full  of  books 
and  periodicals  conveniently  arranged  for  use,  which 
is  correct,  but  it  gives  no  suggestion  of  the  splendor 
of  its  outlook  over  the  water  to  the  mountains,  or 
of  the  bracing  quality  of  its  air.  It  was  a  fit  place 
for  the  organization  into  a  working  group  of  those 
who  were  seeking  to  learn  from  Nature  through 
Science  how  to  live. 

The  charter  members  who  met  on  those  beautiful 
September  days  of  the  first  Conference  were  later 
described  by  Mrs.  Richards:  "Six  were  teachers, 
lecturers,  and  authors  (two  being  pioneers  in  the 
means  of  better  living  and  good  food — one  with 
much  practical  experience  as  well;  one  wise  in 
rural  needs,  and  two  in  close  contact  with  school 
work)  ;  there  wras  one  with  a  large  heart  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  race  and  eager  to  contribute,  one  with 
faith  in  science  as  a  cure-all,  one  wise  with  the  wis- 
dom of  the  future,  full  of  hope  and  zeal  for  her  sex 
and  its  future ;  one  an  optimist,  with  zeal  and  a  belief 
that  to  know  the  right  thing  was  to  do  it,  and  one 
who  represented  the  intelligent  housekeeper's  side." 

Of  those  who  were  described  by  Mrs.  Richards  as 
"teachers,  lecturers,  and  authors,"  three  besides  her- 
self have  laid  down  their  labors :  Miss  Maria  Parloa, 
who  was  remarkable  in  this  that  while  she  might  have 


264  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

argued  from  her  phenomenal  success  as  a  teacher  of 
cooking  that  the  informal  training  which  she  had 
received  was  sufficient,  always  insisted  that  those  who 
were  to  follow  in  her  footsteps  must  have  a  scientific 
basis  for  their  work;  Miss  Maria  Daniell,  pioneer 
in  institutional  management  and  enthusiast  for  the 
development  of  the  work  to  which  she  had  self -forget- 
fully and  courageously  given  her  life;  and  the  one 
"wise  in  the  wisdom  of  the  future  and  full  of  zeal 
for  her  sex,"  Miss  Emily  Huntington,  widely  known 
as  the  originator  of  the  Kitchen  Garden  method  of 
teaching  housekeeping  to  children.  The  other  teach- 
ers were  Miss  Anna  Barrows,  who  was  "wise  in  rural 
needs"  because  of  her  successful  connection  with 
Grange  and  Farmers'  Institute  work;  Mrs.  Alice 
Peloubet  Norton,  then  supervisor  of  Domestic  Sci- 
ence in  the  public  schools  of  Brookline,  Massachu- 
setts, but  soon  to  be  chosen  head  of  the  department 
of  Household  Science  in  the  School  of  Education 
connected  with  the  LTniversity  of  Chicago ;  and  Miss 
Louisa  A.  Nicholass,  of  the  State  Normal  School, 
Framingham,  Massachusetts,  who  had  organized  one 
of  the  first  normal  courses  in  household  arts.  The 
one  representing  the  intelligent  housekeeper's  side 
was  Mrs.  William  G.  Shailcr,  president  of  the 
New  York  Household  Economic  Association,  a  state 
branch  of  a  society  which  shortly  afterwards  became 
incorporated  in  the  Household  Economics  commit- 
tee of  the  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs; 


I  \ 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE         265 

and  the  one  described  as  "having  a  large  heart  for 
the  welfare  of  her  race,"  Mrs.  William  V.  Kellen, 
of  Boston,  who  had  made  the  School  Lunch  project 
possible.  The  person  with  "faith  in  science  as  a 
cure-all"  was,  of  course,  Mrs.  Richards,  while 
Mrs.  Dewey  was  the  optimist  with  "zeal  and  a  belief 
that  to  know  the  right  was  to  do  it." 

This  Conference,  which  had  opened  so  auspiciously 
as  far  as  place  and  membership  are  concerned,  con- 
tinued for  ten  years  a  semi-private  organization,  with 
attendance  by  invitation  of  the  Lake  Placid  Club, 
through  either  Mrs.  Dewey  or  Mrs.  Richards.  The 
meetings  were  always  held  before  the  first  of  July  or 
after  the  fifteenth  of  September,  when  the  Club  was 
not  likely  to  be  crowded.  Through  the  generosity 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dewey,  speakers  and  members  of 
committees  were  entertained.  Others  were  given  spe- 
cial rates  at  the  club,  without  which  it  would  often 
have  been  difficult  for  them  to  meet  the  expense  of  a 
long  journey  to  the  mountains. 

The  record  of  the  work  of  the  Lake  Placid  Con- 
ference of  Home  Economics  has  been  preserved  in 
annual  reports  which  are  a  valuable  contribution  to 
the  literature  of  the  subject.  The  story  has  been 
twice  told  in  brief;  first,  in  an  address  given  by 
Mrs.  Richards  on  the  occasion  of  the  tenth  meeting, 
when  preparations  were  being  made  for  the  formation 
of  a  national  organization;  and  second,  in  a  carefully 
formulated  letter  of  appreciation  from  the  Confer- 


266  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

ence  to  its  leader.  The  first  is  valuable  because  it 
gives  Mrs.  Richards 's  own  point  of  view  and  her  own 
estimate  of  the  value  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Con- 
ference, though  it  leaves  her  connection  with  the 
work  to  the  imagination  of  the  reader.  The  second 
gives  the  members'  own  estimate  of  the  usefulness  of 
her  connection  with  the  organization. 

After  outlining  in  her  report  the  conditions  which 
led  to  the  movement,  Mrs.  Richards  goes  into  de- 
tails of  the  work,  telling  first  how  the  Conference 
set  about  securing  for  its  subject  a  place  in  library 
classification  which  would  provide  for  development 
along  right  lines.  In  the  Dewey  Decimal  Classifica- 
tion they  had  found  it  entered  as  one  of  the  useful 
arts,  but,  as  Mrs.  Richards  said,  that  put  it  under 
"Production,"  and  the  home  was  no  longer  an  im- 
portant industrial  center,  while  it  had  great  respon- 
sibilities in  connection  with  the  use  of  wealth.  The 
Conference  therefore  insisted  that  Home  Economics 
should  be  classified  under  "The  economics  of  con- 
sumption." This  may  seem  a  little  matter,  but  in 
that  experimental  period  it  meant  very  much  to  give 
readers  and  students  a  suggestion  that  Home  Eco- 
nomics involves  vital  matters  connected  wuth  social 
economy  as  well  as  the  arts  of  cooking  and  sewing. 

But  much  more  important  was  the  way  in  which 
the  subject  of  Home  Economics  was  being  presented 
in  the  schools.  Concerning  this,  Mrs.  Richards  said, 
in  a  report  referring  to  conditions  in  the  year  1898 : 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE          267 

"Ten  years  ago  domestic  science  meant  to  most 
people  lessons  in  cooking  and  sewing  given  to  classes 
of  the  poorer  children  supported  by  charitable  peo- 
ple, in  order  to  enable  them  to  teach  their  parents 
to  make  a  few  pennies  go  as  far  as  a  dollar  spent  in 
the  shops.  To  do  this,  common  American  foods  were 
cooked  in  American  ways,  regardless  of  the  nation- 
ality of  the  children,  and  usually  failed  to  please 
the  inherited  foreign  tastes.  But  complacent  philan- 
thropists felt  happy  in  having  offered  bread  to  the 
starving,  as  they  were  pictured  to  be,  and  pretty 
bad  bread  it  often  was,  judged  by  European  stand- 
ards. .  .  . 

"So  also  the  tradition  of  the  valuelessness  of  a 
woman's  time  kept  the  plain  sewing  to  the  front,  and 
classes  were  taught  seams  and  ruffles  and  cheap  orna- 
mentation in  the  false  assumption  that  it  was  econ- 
omy. As  late  as  the  St.  Louis  Exposition,  in  1903, 
the  work  of  the  public  schools  of  this  country  was 
almost  without  exception  bad  from  an  ethical  point 
of  view,  showing  waste  of  time  and  material  and  the 
inculcation  of  bad  taste.  The  work  of  the  American 
public  schools  must  have  an  ethical  quality  if  it  is 
to  give  us  good  citizens. 

"Almost  all  the  early  work  in  sewing  as  well  as 
cooking  done  in  the  country  was  wrong,  and  a  plea 
for  a  fuller  acknowledgment  of  the  economic  and 
ethical  was  made  in  the  name  adopted  by  the  Lake 
Placid  Conference  after  much  thought  and  a  full  dis- 


268  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

cussion — home  economics:  home  meaning  the  place 
for  the  shelter  and  nurture  of  children  or  for  the  de- 
velopment of  self-sacrificing  qualities  and  of  strength 
to  meet  the  world;  economics  meaning  the  manage- 
ment of  this  home  on  economic  lines  as  to  time  and 
energy  as  well  as  to  money.  Lake  Placid  stood  from 
the  first  for  a  study  of  these  economic  and  ethical 
problems,  let  them  lead  where  they  would.  And  they 
have  certainly  led  very  far  from  the  earlier  ideals 
of  domestic  economy.  Real  progress  is  often  re- 
tarded by  trying  to  make  the  new  fit  into  the  old 
scheme  of  things.  It  has  been  the  endeavor  of  the 
program  committee  to  secure  speakers  and  writers 
with  a  penetrating  vision  of  the  future  as  fore- 
shadowed by  the  tendencies  to  be  felt  if  not  seen. 
Just  as  the  dark  end  of  the  spectrum  so  long  disre- 
garded has  proved  to  be  of  the  greatest  importance 
in  cosmic  interpretation,  so  the  obscure  indication 
of  social  movements  is  leading  us  to  clearer  concep- 
tions of  the  goal  whither  society  is  tending;  and 
right  in  the  conditions  of  home  life  is  found  the 
strongest  indicator. 

"Such  topics  as  the  following  are  found  in  the 
programs  of  these  early  years :  training  of  teachers 
of  domestic  science;  courses  of  study  for  grade 
schools  as  well  as  colleges  and  universities ;  state, 
agricultural,  evening,  and  vacation  schools;  exten- 
sion teaching;  rural  school  work;  home  economics 
in  women's  clubs  with  syllabuses  to  aid  such  study: 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE         269 

manual  training  in  education  for  citizenship.  All 
these  lead  toward  higher  education  in  better  living, 
the  new  science  of  Euthenics,  as  an  essential  pre- 
liminary to  the  study  of  the  better  race,  a  study 
to  which  Mr.  Francis  Galton  has  given  the  name 
Eugenics.  From  the  very  first  special  emphasis  was 
laid  on  the  educational  possibilities  of  the  work. 

"Domestic  science  at  farmers'  institutes,  simpli- 
fied methods  of  housekeeping,  standards  of  living  in 
the  conduct  of  the  home  and  in  relation  to  sanitary 
science,  household  industrial  problems,  labor  saving 
appliances,  cost  of  living,  standards  of  wages  and 
the  ever  irritating  question  of  tips  and  fees,  have 
all  been  discussed. 

"Programs  have  included  the  food  problem  in  its 
many  phases,  from  fads  and  fancies  to  protein  metab- 
olism and  mineral  matter  required  by  the  human 
body ;  nutrition,  sanitation,  hygiene,  progress  in 
work  for  public  health  represented  by  the  work  of 
the  Health  Education  League  and  the  Committee 
of  One  Hundred  on  National  Health,  leading  to 
efficiency  as  the  keynote  of  the  20th  century. 

"Economics  in  trade  and  professional  schools, 
home  economics  in  training  schools  for  nurses,  the 
hospital  dietitian  and  the  status  of  institution  man- 
agers, recent  dietetic  experiments  at  Yale  Univer- 
sity, cooperation  with  the  work  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington,  reports 
from  the  American  School  of  Correspondence,  even 


270  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

psychic  factors  affecting  home  economics  and  cost 
of  living  have  been  considered. 

"The  interest  of  the  educator,  the  schoolman  and 
the  woman  teacher  was  no  less  difficult  to  arouse 
than  that  of  the  housewife.  The  school  curriculum 
was  sacred  to  the  usual  academic  subjects. 

"Only  this  past  week  has  seen  the  fruition  of  the 
efforts  made  by  the  conference  annually  to  have 
the  subject  brought  before  the  National  Education 
Association. 

"The  teaching  section  of  the  Lake  Placid  Con- 
ference, organized  in  New  York  in  December,  1906, 
held  a  full  meeting  in  Chicago,  December,  1907,  and 
has  collected  valuable  data  for  use  in  further  work. 
It  has  been  the  means  of  uniting  the  workers  of  all 
sections  and  of  making  known  some  of  the  good  work 
done. 

"But  after  all  it  is  the  economy  of  human  mind 
and  force  that  is  most  important,  and  so  long  as 
the  nurture  of  these  is  best  accomplished  within  the 
four  walls  of  a  home,  so  long  will  the  word  Home 
stand  first  in  our  title." 

Such  was  the  work  of  the  Lake  Placid  Conference 
as  Mrs.  Richards  saw  it;  her  own  connection  with 
it  is  not  made  evident  by  her.  It  was  set  forth,  how- 
ever, in  an  address  prepared  to  honor  Mrs.  Richards, 
which  was  presented  during  the  meeting  of  the  Con- 
ference in  1905.  It  was  signed  by  all  those  who  had 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE          271 

received  the  benefits  of  the  meetings,  and  later  it  was 
engrossed,  illuminated,  bound,  and  presented  to  her 
as  a  permanent  expression  of  appreciation: 

"Every  movement  for  social  betterment  is  made 
up  at  its  beginning  of  apparently  diversified  unre- 
lated forces.  Their  common  ground  of  agreement, 
their  possible  rallying  point  for  combined  effort,  may 
be  hidden  from  the  ordinary  observer,  but  stand  fully 
revealed  to  the  born  leader.  To  such  a  one,  pos- 
sessed of  imagination  and  enthusiasm,  it  is  granted 
to  see  how  this  rich  variety  of  experience  and  sugges- 
tion may  be  used  in  building  up  a  unity  which  is  yet 
various,  and  whose  different  parts  when  nourished 
and  grown  strong  may  establish  their  separate  activi- 
ties. There  comes  a  time  in  the  history  of  every 
social  and  educational  movement  when  the  need 
for  thus  unifying  the  work  of  individuals  is  so  great 
that  without  it  further  progress  is  difficult,  if  not 
impossible. 

"Such  an  organization, Mrs.  Richards, was  effected 
by  you  in  the  Lake  Placid  Conference,  which  held  its 
first  meeting  in  1899.  It  was  instantly  recognized 
as  offering  inspiration  and  practical  help  to  workers 
in  many  different  fields,  to  all  those,  in  fact,  who  were 
laboring  directly  or  indirectly  for  the  betterment  of 
the  home  and  for  good  citizenship.  It  appealed  to  the 
student  of  practical  hygiene;  to  the  teacher  of  sew- 
ing and  cooking  in  the  public  schools ;  to  the  kinder- 
gartner  and  manual  training  teacher  seeking  to 
establish  the  relation  to  brain  development  of  the 


272  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

training  of  hand  and  eye;  to  the  educator  engaged 
in  outlining  the  purposes  and  methods  for  training; 
to  the  adult  as  housekeeper,  as  matron  of  public 
institutions,  as  teacher  or  nurse ;  to  the  club  worker 
desirous  of  finding  out  the  best  ways  of  serving  her 
fellow-citizen;  to  the  thoughtful  woman,  interested 
primarily  in  the  well-being  of  one  home,  but  seeing 
that  many  forces  must  work  together  for  that  end. 
All  these  students  and  workers  have  received  help 
from  the  Lake  Placid  Conference  in  fuller  measure 
than  could  have  been  foreseen  at  its  inception.  By 
able  committees  whose  work  has  extended  over  sev- 
eral years,  it  has  built  up  a  consistent  course  of 
study  for  elementary,  high,  collegiate,  and  tech- 
nical schools;  by  the  help  of  another  committee,  it 
has  obtained  through  the  catalogue  system  of  the 
American  Library  Association  the  proper  place  for 
books  on  Home  Economics,  thus  smoothing  the  path 
of  the  students  in  this  and  kindred  lines;  it  has 
simplified  the  nomenclature  and  defined  the  use  of 
terms  formerly  employed  with  different  meanings  in 
different  schools  and  localities ;  it  has  furnished  well- 
formulated  syllabuses  for  school  and  club  study  on 
Food,  Clothing,  Shelter,  and  the  Expenditure  of  the 
Family  Income;  it  has  preserved,  in  a  permanent 
form  in  the  annual  report,  discussions  by  specialists 
on  a  large  range  of  topics;  it  has  thrown  light  on 
all  of  these  subjects  through  the  cooperation  of  edu^ 
cators,  not  only  of  our  own  land,  but  of  England, 
Canada,  and  Australia;  it  helped  to  increase  the 
number  of  free  government  bulletins  at  the  disposal 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE         273 

of  students,  by  petitioning  Congress  for  additional 
grants  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture  to  be  used 
in  nutrition  investigations ;  it  has  suggested  and 
made  possible  the  establishment  of  summer  schools, 
evening  classes,  and  courses  of  lectures  in  many 
localities;  it  has  helped  in  building  up  the  corre- 
spondence in  Home  Economics;  it  has  brought  to 
the  knowledge  of  members  the  best  books  on  special 
topics,  and  has  suggested  the  need  and  the  scope  of 
new  ones,  such  as  that  valuable  series  on  The  Cost 
of  Living,  The  Cost  of  Food,  and  The  Cost  of 
Shelter,  all  of  which  have  been  written  since  the 
Conference  was  organized. 

"One  of  the  chief  functions  of  the  Lake  Placid 
Conference  has  been  to  put  in  touch  with  each  other 
persons  of  like  interests  and  pursuits  from  widely 
separated  parts  of  the  country.  This  has  often  re- 
sulted in  bringing  to  a  given  work  the  very  worker 
who  could  successfully  carry  it  forward  and  has 
made  it  possible  to  bring  together  students  of  special 
subjects  for  the  giving  of  valuable  courses  of  lec- 
tures. At  these  conferences  the  brave  and  enter- 
prising West  has  come  to  learn  of  the  more  experi- 
enced East,  and  the  East  has  in  turn  learned  of  a 
vast  and  prosperous  region  where  home  life  and 
farm  life  still  have  the  old,  close  relation  which  has 
furnished  ideal  conditions  for  character  building. 
•  "The  dominant  note  in  the  deliberations  of  this 
Conference,  that  which  has  given  it  its  distinctive 
character,  is  the  ever  present  sense  of  the  end  for 
which  all  this  educational  machinery  exists,  'the 


271  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

promotion  of  healthful,  moral,  and  progressive  home 
and  family  life,  the  indispensable  basis  of  national 
prosperity.'  The  Conference  has  repeatedly  pointed 
out  that  'no  person  has  a  better  opportunity  to 
separate  convention  from  good  living  than  the 
teacher  of  housekeeping  methods.'  That  there  may 
be  'standards  of  living,'  and  that  light  may  be  thrown 
on  them  by  acknowledged  principles  of  economic  and 
social  science,  and  that  these  standards  should  be 
treated  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  relation  to 
physical  and  moral  health,  are  doctrines  which  have 
taken  form  in  this  Conference  with  clearness  and 
force.  It  has  been  recognized  that  the  home  cannot 
adjust  itself  to  the  rapidly  changing  conditions  of 
modern  times  without  help  from  trained  people  work- 
ing through  the  only  medium,  the  school,  hence  the 
importance  of  placing  courses  in  Home  Economics 
on  a  sound  educational  and  scientific  basis. 

"Best  of  all,  this  Conference  has  been  character- 
ized by  a  sunny  atmosphere  of  courage,  helpfulness, 
and  enthusiasm.  It  has  been  especially  full  of  in- 
spiration to  the  young  teacher.  'For  two  years,' 
said  one,  'the  Conference  gave  me  all  the  help  I  had.' 
'What  I  learned  that  others  had  done  nerved  me  to 
the  task  of  starting  practical  courses  in  the  rural 
schools  of  my  state,'  said  another. 

"It  is  impossible  to  give  due  credit  to  all  the 
different  factors  that  have  united  in  producing  this 
whole,  making  of  it  an  educational  influence  which 
it  is  believed  will  be  a  power  for  good  in  the  land. 
The  name  and  place  of  meeting  suggest  the  debt  of 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE 

the  Conference  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Melvil  Dewey,  who, 
not  only  by  their  generous  hospitality,  but  by  their 
wise  counsel  and  encouragement,  have  made  the  Con- 
ference possible.  But  there  has  been  no  doubt  in  the 
mind  of  even  the  most  casual  observer  of  the  Con- 
ference that  you,  its  Chairman,  were  the  inspiring 
genius  and  leader  of  it  all.  It  is  you  who  have  drawn 
around  you  these  workers  from  far  and  near  and 
given  them  quickened  thought  and  a  vision  of  how 
'all  things  work  together';  it  is  you  who  have  ever 
seen  the  main  issue  clear  through  confusing  details 
and  have  pointed  out  not  only  ideals  but  the  open 
way  to  their  realization.  But  we  who  love  and  honor 
you  can  give  no  better  proof  of  our  feeling  than  to 
obey  what  we  know  would  be  your  wish,  and  leave 
unwritten  the  volume  of  your  good  deeds. 

"  'Our  chief  want  in  life  is  some  one  who  shall  make 
us  do  what  we  can.  There  is  a  sublime  attraction  in 
him  to  whatever  virtue  is  in  us.' ' 

Never  was  there  such  a  leader  as  Mrs.  Richards. 
Before  she  came  to  a  meeting  of  the  Lake  Placid 
Conference  she  had  her  plans  all  fully  laid  in  accord- 
ance with  her  idea  of  what  was  due  to  the  busy  people 
whom  she  was  bringing  together.  She  had  provided, 
too,  for  reports  in  newspapers  and  periodicals,  and 
had  decided  how  she  herself  would  use  every  hour, 
almost  every  minute.  Arrived  on  the  scene,  she  was 
up  at  daybreak  preparing  for  the  day's  work.  In 
some  way  she  succeeded  in  making  every  one  want 
to  be  on  hand  at  the  right  moment  and  to  fill  his  or 


276  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

her  part  in  the  program  creditably,  whether  it  was 
in  speaking,  in  committee  work,  or  the  recording  or 
reporting  of  proceedings.  She  could  cut  off  fruit- 
less debate  without  injuring  any  one's  feelings,  and 
could  bring  out  all  of  value  that  the  members  had 
to  contribute,  and  at  the  same  time  suppress  all  that 
was  irrelevant.  A  certain  prosperous  business  man 
who  was  a  guest  at  the  Lake  Placid  Club  used  often 
to  come  to  the  door  of  the  room  where  the  Confer- 
ences were  held  and  stand  for  a  few  moments  watch- 
ing and  listening  intently.  The  cause  of  his  interest 
was  for  a  long  time  a  mystery,  but  finally  he  was 
heard  to  say:  "I  always  like  to  see  that  little  woman 
conduct  a  meeting.  It  is  an  education  in  itself." 
But  he  could  see  only  how  she  was  directing  those 
forces  which  she  had  in  hand  at  the  moment.  He 
little  suspected  that  her  generalship  extended  beyond 
the  time  and  the  place  of  the  Conference,  and  that 
the  effective  ordering  of  the  programs  was  only  one 
manifestation  of  her  organizing  ability. 

She  always  insisted  on  the  subordination  of  social 
features  to  the  real  work  of  the  Conference.  An 
early  morning  climb  to  the  top  of  "Cobble,"  a  hill 
near  the  Club,  might  clear  the  brain  for  a  day's 
work,  and  she  would  enter  into  such  an  expedition 
with  enthusiasm.  But  upon  festivities  which  took 
time  and  energy  that  ought  to  go  into  the  work  to 
make  it  effective,  she  looked  with  disapproval. 

As  a  means  of  "getting  things  done,"  the  Lake 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE          277 

Placid  Conference  was  a  working  body  which  might 
well  stand  as  a  model,  particularly  in  these  times 
when  conventions,  even  of  learned  societies,  are  too 
often  given  over  so  largely  to  social  functions. 

Although  the  Lake  Placid  Conference  retained 
for  ten  years  the  name  of  the  place  where  it  was 
organized,  it  held  two  meetings  elsewhere;  one  in  the 
year  1903  in  Boston,  where  a  joint  session  with 
the  Manual  Training  Section  of  the  National  Edu- 
cation Association  was  held,  and  one  in  1908  at 
Chautauqua,  New  York.  It  was  at  this  last-named 
meeting  that  plans  were  laid  for  changing  the  Con- 
ference into  a  national  organization.  Mrs.  Richards 
had  always  had  in  mind  that  such  a  change  must 
come  in  time,  but  she  believed  that  it  would  be  most 
unfortunate  if  the  larger  organization  came  into 
being  before  the  smaller  one  had  been  effectively 
organized  and  its  work  thoroughly  systematized. 
Sla-  believed  firmly  that  good  work  was  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  large  size  and  wide  public  notice.  At  the 
ninth  Conference  at  Lake  Placid,  in  1907,  in  reply 
to  a  question  why  a  larger  organization  should  not 
be  formed,  she  replied:  "We  have  started  a  separate 
Teachers'  Section  which  will  bring  together  teachers 
from  all  over  the  country  and  which  for  this  reason 
is  planning  to  meet  at  other  places  than  Lake  Placid. 
Let  us  see  what  it  will  accomplish ;  the  national  asso- 
ciation will  come  in  time  when  we  are  ready  for  it." 

Early  in  the  Conference  of  1908,  writh  character- 


278  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

istic  method,  she  asked  that  written  suggestions  be 
handed  in  at  a  later  session  as  to  (1)  the  most  im- 
portant work  for  the  Conference  for  the  next  ten 
years,  and  (2)  the  desirability  of  organizing  into  a 
national  body.  She  had  questioned  some  individuals 
in  advance  by  correspondence  and  was  apparently 
herself  convinced  by  the  enthusiasm  evinced  in  the 
Teachers'  Section  of  the  advisability  of  reorganiza- 
tion, but  she  would  proceed  only  if  the  members 
desired  and  if  they  could  show  that  they  had  a  large 
program  for  the  years  to  come.  A  preliminary  com- 
mittee on  national  organization  brought  together 
suggestions  from  various  quarters  and  reported  its 
conclusions  that  the  time  had  come  for  a  national 
society  with  state  branches  and  for  the  publication 
of  a  journal.  It  recommended  that  a  committee  be 
appointed  to  report  at  the  meeting  of  the  Teachers' 
Section  which  was  to  be  held  in  Washington  in 
December,  1908. 

In  the  fall  of  1908,  Mrs.  Richards  published  two 
Bulletins  to  further  the  organization  of  the  new  asso- 
ciation, for  which  she  herself  provided  the  material 
and  took  the  financial  risks.  The  first  contained 
eight  pages,  and  stated  succinctly  the  purpose  of  the 
new  organization  and  asked  the  cooperation  of  all 
who  were  engaged  in  trying  to  solve  home  and  educa- 
tion problems — housekeepers,  teachers,  physicians, 
architects,  health  officers,  economists,  sanitarians. 
The  Bulletins  also  contained  news  notes,  queries, 


LAKE  PLACID  CONFERENCE          279 

bibliographies,  and  advertisements,  the  purpose  being 
to  indicate  the  various  ways  in  which  a  journal  pub- 
lished by  the  new  organization  might  prove  useful. 
The  second  Bulletin,  which  was  twice  as  large  as 
the  first,  opened  with  the  program  of  the  meeting 
for  reorganization  to  be  held  in  Washington.  Thus 
passed  the  Lake  Placid  Conference,  but  only  in  name, 
for  its  spirit  and  work  were  to  contitiue  and  in  a 
much  larger  field. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT 

ON  December  81,  1908,  the  American  Home 
Economics  Association  was  organized  in  the  city 
of  Washington,  at  a  meeting  held  in  the  auditorium 
of  the  McKinley  Manual  Training  School,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  recently  organized  Teachers'  Section 
of  the  Lake  Placid  Conference,  and  Mrs.  Richards 
was  chosen  as  its  first  president,  an  office  which  she 
continued  to  hold  until  the  annual  meeting  in  Decem- 
ber, 1910,  when  she  insisted  on  retiring  and  was 
made  honorary  president. 

Into  the  work  of  the  Home  Economics  Associa- 
tion she  entered  with  all  her  great  enthusiasm,  be- 
lieving that  though  its  field  was  not  very  exactly 
outlined,  nor  very  clearly  marked  off  from  that  of 
any  other  applied  science,  it  was  sufficiently  well 
defined  to  warrant  bringing  together  a  band  of  work- 
ers into  a  separate  organization.  So  far  as  there 
was  a  distinct  field  for  the  work  and  a  definite  body 
of  knowledge,  the  credit  is  due  to  her.  On  this  point 
Dr.  C.  F.  Langworthy,  of  the  Office  of  Experiment 
Stations  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, says:  "To  Liebig  belongs  the  credit  more 

280 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT      281 

than  to  any  one  else  for  bringing  together  isolated 
facts  and  for  so  adding  to  them  as  to  produce  the  new 
subject  of  Agricultural  Chemistry,  which  is  almost 
the  same  as  saying  Agriculture,  as  we  understand 
it  at  the  present  time.  In  the  same  way  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards did  more  than  any  one  else  to  bring  together 
a  great  many  known  facts  and  to  add  a  new  member, 
Home  Economics,  to  the  group  of  subjects  which  a 
man  or  a  woman  may  select  for  serious  study  or  for 
practical  application." 

To  the  details  of  organization  she  gave  her  care- 
ful attention.  She  realized  that  she  had  of  necessity 
dominated  the  older  organization,  rendering  con- 
stitution and  by-laws  of  little  importance,  and  that 
there  was  little  in  the  way  of  precedent  to  guide. 
In  her  care  for  the  working  machinery  of  the  new 
association,  she  seemed  to  be  looking  forward  to 
leaving  the  work,  and  may  have  had  a  premonition 
of  her  death  which  was  so  soon  to  come. 

The  Association  has  developed  rapidly  since  its 
foundation ;  as  now  organized  it  includes  many  dis- 
trict and  state  branches,  which  cover  a  territory 
extending  from  New  England  to  California.  These 
branches  as  they  grow  in  membership  and  awake 
communities  to  their  local  needs  divide  and  sub- 
divide, and  thus  multiply  in  number.  Besides  the 
local  branches  there  are  two  sections  which  bring 
together  special  classes  of  workers — the  Teachers' 
Section,  which  usually  meets  with  the  National  Edu- 


282  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

cation  Association,  and  the  Administration  Section, 
chiefly  interested  in  institutional  housekeeping,  which 
has  so  far  met  at  the  Lake  Placid  Club.  Signs  now 
point  to  the  organization  of  a  third  or  Housekeepers' 
Section. 

At  the  first  convention  plans  were  laid  for 
the  publication  of  a  journal,  and  soon  afterwards 
Mrs.  Mary  Hinman  Abel,  of  Baltimore,  was  chosen 
editor.  It  was  decided  to  publish  five  times  a  year, 
in  February,  April,  June,  October,  and  December. 
The  financial  burden  of  the  enterprise,  or  at  least 
the  burden  of  financial  responsibility,  fell  upon 
Mrs.  Richards,  and  it  was  no  small  weight.  Since 
Home  Economics  is  concerned  with  the  fundamental 
needs  of  human  life — with  food  and  clothing  and 
shelter — and  these  needs  are  at  the  foundation  also 
of  great  commercial  enterprises,  keen  after  profits, 
the  publication  of  a  journal  such  as  the  Association 
wanted  presented  some  great  and  unusual  problems. 
Mrs.  Richards's  wide  experience  and  connections 
were  of  greatest  value  in  steering  the  new  publication 
around  the  many  danger  points. 

As  the  organ  of  a  society  which  brings  together 
widely  different  groups — teachers  in  all  grades  of 
schools  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  university, 
housekeepers,  lecturers,  lunchroom  managers,  and 
institutional  housekeepers — the  Journal  of  Home 
Economics  presents  other  puzzling  problems ;  what 
interests  one  does  not  interest  others ;  what  one  needs 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT       283 

another  does  not.  At  the  last  executive  committee 
meeting  which  Mrs.  Richards  attended,  about  a 
month  after  her  retirement  from  the  active  presi- 
dency, she  said  that  such  time  in  the  future  as  she 
could  give  to  Home  Economics  would  be  spent  upon 
the  development  of  the  Journal. 

To  forward  this  work  by  a  periodical  was  no  new 
idea  with  Mrs.  Richards.  When  in  1894  she  was 
approached  by  an  advertising  agent  who  wished  to 
use  the  name  "New  England  Kitchen"  for  a  maga- 
zine that  he  planned  to  start,  she  quickly  appreciated 
this  means  of  reaching  more  people,  but  she  con- 
sented only  on  condition  that  she  choose  the  editor. 
The  promoter  soon  withdrew  from  the  enterprise, 
and  it  was  managed  by  a  board  of  editors  who  took 
up  the  work  through  Mrs.  Richards's  influence. 

The  magazine  outgrew  the  narrower  title  and 
became  the  American  Kitchen  Magazine.  During  the 
ten  years  of  its  publication  Mrs.  Richards,  though 
never  directly  responsible,  aided  it  by  advice  and 
in  securing  financial  support.  The  revision  of  one 
of  her  books,  "The  Chemistry  of  Cooking  and  Clean- 
ing," in  which  Miss  S.  Maria  Elliott  collaborated, 
was  published  in  its  pages,  and  there  were  few  num- 
bers that  did  not  contain  some  article  that  she  wrote 
or  suggested.  She  also  gave  courses  of  lectures  in  a 
Summer  School  that  for  several  successive  years  was 
held  by  the  magazine  in  its  rooms  in  Boston.  This 
was  the  first  periodical  that  represented  the  teacher's 


284  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

point  of  view  in  Home  Economics,  and  it  exerted 
an  educative  and  unifying  influence  that  did  much 
to  prepare  the  way  for  organization. 

In  1909  the  Association  decided  to  assume  direc- 
tion of  the  Graduate  School  of  Home  Economics, 
which  had  existed  for  several  years  as  an  independent 
organization,  but  which  voted  to  seek  affiliation  with 
the  American  Home  Economics  Association.  This 
school  offers  important  opportunities  for  graduate 
study  in  its  biennial  summer  sessions  of  six  weeks' 
duration.  It  had  its  origin  in  1902,  when  Pro- 
fessor Atwater,  of  the  Office  of  Experiment  Stations, 
opened  his  laboratories  at  Wesleyan  University,  in 
Middletown,  Connecticut,  to  teachers  of  Domestic 
Science,  inviting  them  to  study  there  for  four  weeks 
and  to  get  in  touch  with  the  government's  investiga- 
tions on  nutrition.  That  same  year  a  call  was  given 
for  graduates  in  Agriculture  to  gather  at  Ohio  State 
University  to  do  advanced  work,  and  from  the  two 
meetings  arose  the  Graduate  Schools  of  Home  Eco- 
nomics and  Agriculture.  They  had  their  first  joint 
session  at  the  University  of  Illinois  in  1906,  their 
second  at  Cornell  University  in  1908,  their  third 
at  the  Iowa  State  College  of  Agriculture  in  1910. 
Before  the  Graduate  School  of  Agriculture  the  latest 
investigations  in  agriculture  and  kindred  fields  are 
reported,  one  or  two  distinguished  foreign  scientists 
as  well  as  many  American  investigators  being  on  the 
faculty  each  year.  In  many  cases  the  lectures  in 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT       285 

this  school,  those  on  such  subjects  as  animal  and 
plant  physiology,  nutrition,  dairying  methods,  and 
landscape  architecture,  for  example,  bear  quite  as 
closely  upon  home  as  upon  farm  problems,  and  the 
joint  sessions  have  for  this  reason  been  of  great 
advantage  to  the  Graduate  School  of  Home  Eco- 
nomics. Mrs.  Richards  was  actively  interested  in  all 
the  sessions  of  these  schools,  and  during  that  of  1908 
delivered  a  course  of  lectures. 

Considering  her  passionate  desire  for  equality  of 
educational  opportunity  for  men  and  women,  the 
preference  which  she  often  expressed  for  working 
with  men  and  women  together  and  not  with  women 
alone,  and  her  vigorous  protests  against  special 
concessions  to  women,  it  may  seem  strange  that 
Mrs.  Richards  should  have  interested  herself  in  the 
Home  Economics  Association,  whose  membership 
consists  largely  of  women,  and  in  the  Home  Eco- 
nomics movement,  which  is  often  thought  to  interest 
women  chiefly.  It  is  not  a  woman's  movement,  how- 
ever, but  a  "home"  movement  in  which  men  and 
women  alike  have  been  given  a  part,  and  the  Home 
Economics  Association  has  many  men  in  its  member- 
ship. "I  think  it  needs  all  the  wisdom  available  to 
attack  so  great  a  problem,"  Mrs.  Richards  once 
said,  "and  I  prefer  to  give  my  time  and  influence 
to  work  in  which  men  and  women  are  in  accord." 
The  fact  that  men  and  women  are  found  work- 
ing together  in  this  Association  is  due  in  large 


286  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

measure  to  Mrs.  Richards's  influence  and  to  her 
constant  emphasis  on  the  scientific  and  economic 
bearings  of  the  subject.  Dr.  David  Kinley,  of  the 
University  of  Illinois,  has  said:  "She  had  very  clear 
notions  of  the  scope  and  importance  of  household 
economics,  not  only  in  the  narrower  sense  in  which 
the  term  is  commonly  used,  but  with  reference  to  the 
relationship  of  the  subject  to  general  economics  and 
sociology.  To  her,  household  economics  was  a  dis- 
tinct and  important  phase  of  the  social  economy. 
This  seems  to  me  the  true  view,  and  to  Mrs.  Richards 
more,  perhaps,  than  to  any  other  one  person,  is  due 
the  credit  of  widening  the  horizon  of  the  students 
of  her  subject,  and  of  enthusing  them  with  a  deeper 
and  more  tolerant  social  feeling/' 

Her  position  in  the  matter  of  woman's  work  in 
those  fields  where  it  is  brought  in  competition  or 
comparison  with  men's  work  was  very  clearly  stated 
in  the  course  of  correspondence  which  followed  an 
invitation  to  become  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Lady 
Managers  of  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago  and  to 
exhibit  in  the  Woman's  Building. 

"I  would  do  anything  in  my  power  which  you 
asked  of  me,  but  I  have  racked  my  brains  in  vain 
to  find  anything  which  as  a  woman  I  have  done  by 
myself,  which  could  be  shown  as  woman's  work.  The 
only  thing  I  can  think  of  is  the  little  course  on 
mineral  lessons  which  I  got  out  with  Miss  Crocker 
for  the  public  schools.  You  are  welcome  to  copies 


//(•/<•//   ('(iiniilxll  innl  Mrs.  1,'irlniril*  on   tlic  rifiht 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT       287 

of  my  little  books  and  papers  on  scientific  topics, 
but  my  work  in  the  main  is  so  interwoven  with  that 
of  the  men  here  that  it  is  impossible  to  separate, 
and  it  would  be  an  injustice  to  do  so.  The  work  on 
the  water  belongs  to  the  State  Board  of  Health  and 
will  be  shown  by  them.  The  200  young  men  and  100 
young  women,  my  pupils,  are  my  best  exhibit  and 
they  are  not  available. 

"Massachusetts  usually  leads  and  she  has  left 
behind  her  the  period  of  woman's  laboratories  and 
woman's  exhibitions.  Our  own  Tech  has  known  no 
sex  since  1884  and  no  profession  or  occupation  is 
now  closed  to  a  perfectly  qualified  woman.  Hence 
it  is  appropriate  that  the  space  should  be  left  vacant. 
You  might  have  a  large  banner,  'Massachusetts 
points  to  her  women,  their  works  do  follow  them.' 

"Really  I  see  nothing  to  be  shown  unless  a  list 
of  women  occupying  public  and  professional  posi- 
tions in  1893  in  the  State  be  inscribed  on  parchment 
and  framed." 

Later  she  wrote  even  more  emphatically: 

"From  the  first  I  have  declined  every  appoint- 
ment on  the  women's  branch  of  the  Auxiliary  and 
I  do  not  know  how  it  happens  that  my  name  is  still 
on  your  council.  ...  I  do  not  wish  to  be  identified 
with  a  body,  the  very  existence  of  which  seems  to  me 
out  of  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the  times.  Twenty 
years  ago  I  was  glad  to  work  on  Woman's  Boards 
for  the  education  of  women.  The  time  is  some  years 


288  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

past  when  it  seemed  to  me  wise  to  work  that  way. 
Women  have  now  more  rights  and  duties  than  they 
are  fitted  to  perform.  They  need  to  measure  them- 
selves with  men  on  the  same  terms  and  in  the  same 
work  in  order  to  learn  their  own  needs.  Therefore 
the  establishment  of  a  separate  woman's  branch  of 
our  exposition  seemed  always  a  mistake  to  me  and 
one  which  I  preferred  not  to  be  connected  with  in 
any  way.  .  .  ." 

She  recognized,  however,  that  there  are  certain 
forms  of  work  that  will  always  fall  to  women,  and 
she  felt  it  an  injustice  that  these  and  the  educational 
problems  connected  with  them  do  not  have  the  best 
thought  of  men  as  well  as  of  women.  Once  after 
pleading  before  an  educational  conference  of  which 
she  was  the  only  woman  member  for  a  thorough  sys- 
tem of  training  in  Home  Economics,  she  was  con- 
fronted by  certain  old  arguments  to  prove  that  if 
women  would  stay  at  home  and  meet  their  obligations 
there  would  be  no  need  of  industrial  training  in  the 
schools.  At  this  time  she  made  one  of  the  most 
impassioned  speeches  of  her  life. 

"Industrial  training  may  make  matters  worse. 
That  is  why  I  make  this  plea,  for  it  may  take  more 
and  more  the  interest  from  home  life  which,  I  must 
reiterate,  has  been  robbed  by  the  removal  of  creative 
work.  You  cannot  make  women  contented  with  cook- 
ing and  cleaning  and  you  need  not  try.  The  care 
of  children  occupies  only  five  or  ten  years  of  the 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT       289 

seventy.  What  are  women  to  do  with  the  rest?  All 
the  movement  for  industrial  education  is  doomed  to 
fail  unless  you  take  account  of  the  girls.  You  can- 
not put  them  where  their  great-grandmothers  were, 
while  you  take  to  yourselves  the  spinning,  the  weav- 
ing, and  the  soap  making.  The  time  was  when  there 
was  always  something  to  do  in  the  home.  Now 
there  is  only  something  to  be  done. 

"We  are  not  quite  idiots,  although  we  have  been 
dumb,  because  you  did  not  understand  our  language. 
We  demand  a  hearing  and  the  help  of  wise  leaders 
to  reorder  our  lives  to  the  advantage  of  the  country.1' 

Instead,  then,  of  being  inconsistent  with  her  ideals, 
Mrs.  Riclwrds's  connection  with  the  Home  Econom- 
ics movement  was  most  consistent,  for  she  believed 
that  because  women  had  clung  to  antiquated  ways 
of  doing  housework  or  of  getting  it  done,  and  had 
failed  to  take  hold  of  their  own  problems  in  a  master- 
ful way,  they  were  handicapped  when  they  tried  to 
do  systematic  work  outside  of  the  home  for  which 
they  might  have  special  talents.  "The  work  of  home- 
making  in  this  scientific  age  must  be  worked  out  on 
engineering  principles  and  with  the  cooperation  of 
trained  men  and  trained  women.  The  mechanical 
setting  of  life  is  become  an  important  factor,  and 
this  new  impulse  which  is  showing  itself  so  clearly 
today  for  the  modified  construction  and  operation 
of  the  family  home  is  the  final  crown  or  seal  of  the 
conquest  of  the  last  stronghold  of  conservatism,  the 


290  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

home-keeper.  Tomorrow,  if  not  today,  the  woman 
who  is  to  be  really  mistress  of  her  house  must  be  an 
engineer,  so  far  as  to  be  able  to  understand  the  use 
of  machines." 

In  1900  she  wrote  an  article  for  the  Woman's 
Journal,  in  which  she  said: 

"In  the  strenuous  life  of  a  modern  community, 
distractions  crowd  so  closely  upon  every  hand  that 
unless  a  woman  has  method  in  the  use  of  her  time, 
it  is  frittered  away  and  nothing  useful  is  accom- 
plished. One  of  the  most  disheartening  things  of  the 
ay  is  to  see  the  waste  of  time  and  energy  in  the 
occupations  of  nine-tenths  of  American  women.  This 
is  the  more  singular  as  in  manufacturing  operations 
the  reverse  is  so  commonly  true. 

"In  searching  for  a  cause  it  seems  at  once  evident 
that  women,  as  a  whole,  have  not  become  imbued 
with  the  scientific  spirit  of  the  age.  They  still  cling 
to  tradition.  .  They  defy  natural  law,  instead  of 
accepting  its  help  in  all  they  wish  to  do. 

"To  take  one  of  the  most  frequent  exhibitions  of 
this  contempt  for  law — a  woman's  behavior  in  a 
crowded,  street-car.  Fully  three-quarters  of  the  sex 
do  not  know  how  to  stand  erect  in  a  swaying  car, 
and  are  not  able  to  keep  their  balance  when  the  car 
starts.  Yet  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  simple  laws  in 
relation  to  bodies  in  motion  and  at  rest,  laws  which 
every  school  girl  should  know,  and  which  every  school 
boy  does  know  practically,  if  not  theoretically. 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT      291 

"The  first  need  in  woman's  education  today  is  a 
grounding  in  respect  for  inexorable  law,  not  only 
in  physics,  chemistry  and  mathematics,  but  in  physi- 
ology and  in  sanitary  science,  and  not  least  in  social- 
economic  science.  Too  often  women  have  shaken 
themselves  free  from  the  support  of  surroundings  to 
find  that  they  were  ignorant  of  the  rules  of  the  road, 
and  when  one  has  come  to  grief,  she  blames  condi- 
tions instead  of  realizing  her  own  stupidity. 

"It  is  not  a  profound  knowledge  of  any  one  or 
a  dozen  sciences  which  women  need,  so  much  as  an 
attitude  of  mind  which  leads  them  to  a  suspension 
of  judgment  on  new  subjects,  and  to  that  interest  in 
tlie  present  progress  of  science  which  causes  them 
to  call  in  the  help  of  the  expert,  which  impels  them  to 
ask,  'Can  I  do  better  than  I  am  doing?'  'Is  there 
any  device  which  I  might  use?'  'Is  my  house  right 
as  to  its  sanitary  arrangement?'  'Is  my  food  the 
best  possible?'  'Have  I  chosen  the  right  colors  and 
the  best  materials  for  clothing?'  'Am  I  making  the 
best  use  of  my  timr?"  ' 

Her  hope  for  the  Home  Economics  Association  in 
relation  to  housekeeping  she  expressed  in  a  few  words 
just  after  its  organization.  Having  attended  all  the 
business  meetings  of  the  first  convention,  she  was 
obliged  to  be  absent  from  the  banquet,  but  she  did 
not  forget  her  co-workers,  and  during  the  festivities 
a  telegram  came  from  her  which  read:  "Happy  New 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Year  to  the  new  society  !  May  it  celebrate  its  fiftieth 
anniversary  by  the  establishment  of  a  new  species 
of  housewife." 

She  believed  in  the  family  home  with  a  roof  of  its 
own  and  a  plat  of  ground  of  its  own  so  firmly  that 
she  considered  its  importance  beyond  argument. 
The  only  question  was  howT  to  preserve  it,  and  she 
never  could  understand  how  people  could,  for  the 
want  of  a  little  united  effort,  let  it  slip  out  of  their 
grasp  and  force  family  life  to  seek  expression  in 
hotels  or  apartment  houses.  But  she  was  far  from 
wanting  to  retain  time-consuming  methods  of  main- 
taining homes.  The  methods  should  be  determined 
by  the  times,  and  should  be  the  result  of  the  applica- 
tion of  science  and  the  principles  of  engineering. 
There  was  nothing  inconsistent  about  working  for 
such  homes  and  at  the  same  time  seeking  to  have 
the  most  advanced  educational  opportunities  and 
professions  opened  to  women. 

It  should  be  remembered  also,  in  connection  with 
the  organization  of  the  Home  Economics  Associa- 
tion, that  Mrs.  Richards  was  always  on  the  lookout 
for  opportunities  as  well  as  for  needs.  No  matter 
how  great  or  how  widespread  a  need  might  be,  she 
thought  there  was  little  use  in  trying  to  meet  it  by 
organized  efforts  until  public  opinion  had  reached 
a  point  where  an  effective  campaign  could  be  made. 
As  long  as  public  opinion  was  forming  she  was  con- 
tinually teaching,  preaching,  and  sowing  seed  by 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT       293 

casual  suggestions,  but  she  refused  to  waste  her  time 
in  trying  to  work  through  organizations  until  she 
felt  the  time  was  ripe  for  them.  For  this  she  was 
often  criticized  and  was  thought  to  lack  interest  in 
important  public  questions,  but  it  was  simply  her 
way  of  working. 

Her  greatest  interest,  as  we  know,  was  in  a  subject 
far  wider  than  Home  Economics,  and  she  was  watch- 
ing continually  for  an  opportunity  to  work  effec- 
tively along  the  broader  line.  She  believed  that  men 
as  well  as  women  should  be  so  educated  as  to  have 
an  intelligent  interest  in  problems  connected  with 
food,  ventilation,  and  home  sanitation  in  general, 
and  that  every  department  of  life  should  receive  the 
benefit  of  applied  science.  But  if  the  world  was 
ready  to  revolutionize  girls'  education  in  this  direc- 
tion and  not  boys',  that  indicated  to  her  where  a 
given  amount  of  energy  could  be  most  effectively 
expended.  In  the  changed  attitude  of  the  public 
mind  toward  women's  education  she  saw  an  oppor- 
tunity to  teach  the  art  of  Right  Living  to  part  of 
the  people  at  least.  "Never  mind  the  name  by  which 
it  is  designated,  it  is  the  result  we  are  after.  It  is 
not  mere  hygiene  but  the  whole  round  of  abundant 
physical  life." 

Again  the  Home  Economics  movement  offered  an 
opportunity  to  utilize  what  she  once  called  "that 
considerable  body  of  useful  knowledge  now  lying  on 
shelves."  "The  sanitary  research  worker  in  labora- 


294,  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

tory  and  field  has  gone  nearly  to  the  limit  of  his 
value.  He  will  soon  be  smothered  in  his  own  work 
if  no  one  takes  it.  Meanwhile,  children  die  by  the 
thousands ;  contagious  diseases  take  toll  of  hundreds  ; 
back  alleys  remain  foul  and  the  streets  are  unswept ; 
schoolhouses  are  unwashed,  and  danger  lurks  in  the 
drinking  cups  and  about  the  towels.  Dust  is  stirred 
up  each  morning  with  the  feather  duster,  to  greet  the 
warm  moist  noses  and  throats  of  the  children.  To 
the  watchful  expert  it  seems  like  the  old  cities  danc- 
ing and  making  merry  on  the  eve  of  a  volcanic  out- 
break. .  .  .  There  is  ready  at  hand  a  field  for  the 
Home  Economics  teacher." 

It  is  only  fair  to  say  of  the  organization  of 
the  Home  Economics  Association,  that  part  of  the 
"inconvenience  of  ignorance"  with  which  it  was 
destined  "to  do  away"  was  the  inconvenience  to 
Mrs.  Richards  of  other  people's  ignorance.  From 
the  very  first  suggestion  of  introducing  Manual 
Training  and  Domestic  Science  into  the  schools  she 
had  kept  herself  informed  by  study  and  travel  about 
what  the  world  was  doing.  She  had  herself  experi- 
mented in  teaching  science  to  children,  and  had 
worked  with  the  pioneers  in  almost  every  new  educa- 
tional movement  in  Boston.  She  had,  therefore,  a 
fund  of  information  and  experience  upon  which 
others  were  glad  to  draw,  and  there  poured  in  upon 
her  from  all  parts  of  the  world  inquiries  as  to  this 
kind  of  instruction.  School  authorities  wrote  ask- 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT       295 

ing  about  the  advisability  of  modifying  the  courses 
in  the  schools  so  as  to  include  Domestic  Science  and 
Manual  Training;  school  superintendents  requested 
her  to  recommend  teachers  ;  teachers  sought  positions 
through  her  and  asked  her  advice  about  advanced 
work  in  order  to  improve  their  own  qualifications ; 
mothers  asked  where  they  should  send  their  daughters 
for  normal  training  in  household  arts ;  housekeepers 
asked  her  advice  about  safe  economical  methods  in 
housework,  and  women's  clubs  asked  help  in  the 
matter  of  programs,  speakers,  and  preparation  of 
papers.  She  was  fairly  overwhelmed  with  corre- 
spondence on  all  these  subjects.  No  wonder  that 
she  thought  the  time  had  come  for  turning  some  of 
this  work  over  to  an  organized  body  of  workers,  for 
teachers  to  band  together  and  study  their  own  prob- 
lems, and  for  educators  to  consider  in  conference  the 
possibilities  of  the  work. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  some  that  Mrs.  Richards 
became  a  leader  in  Home  Economics  work  when  her 
own  experience  in  teaching  had  been  in  a  different 
line.  But  if  all  her  teaching,  informal  as  well  as 
formal,  is  taken  into  consideration,  a  large  portion 
of  it,  it  is  safe  to  say,  was  of  the  kind  now  given  in 
advanced  schools  of  Home  Economics.  This  can 
be  said  of  her  teaching  in  the  Woman's  Laboratory 
and  also  of  the  lectures  that  she  gave  in  connection 
with  the  Normal  School  of  Household  Arts.  Just 
before  the  organization  of  the  Lake  Placid  Confer- 


296  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

ence  in  1899,  she  had  had  a  part  in  organizing  the 
School  of  Housekeeping  in  Boston,  which  was  con- 
nected with  the  Women's  Educational  and  Industrial 
Union.  This  school,  to  be  sure,  as  originally  planned, 
was  more  particularly  for  the  training  of  household 
employees,  and  for  two  years  most  of  the  work  was 
in  this  line  and  in  the  line  of  lectures  for  employers 
of  household  labor.  But  the  demand  on  the  part  of 
employees  and  that  on  the  part  of  the  older  house- 
keepers was  not  great,  while  at  the  same  time  there 
was  a  growing  demand  for  training  on  the  part  of 
prospective  housekeepers,  young  women  just  out 
of  college  or  high  school,  and  a  systematic  course 
was  laid  out  for  them.  With  the  beginning  of  this 
course  Mrs.  Richards's  interest  was  thoroughly 
enlisted,  and  she  became  chief  adviser  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  school  and  used  all  her  wide  influence  to 
interest  other  people.  During  the  last  three  years 
of  its  existence,  from  1899  to  1902,  she  gave  courses 
of  lectures  on  the  Chemistry  of  Food  and  helped  to 
outline  the  related  laboratory  courses.  This  School 
of  Housekeeping  was  in  1902  transferred  by  the 
Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union  to 
Simmons  College,  and  became  the  basis  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Home  Economics  in  that  institution. 

A  large  part,  too,  of  the  illustrative  material 
which  was  used  by  the  first  teachers  of  Home  Eco- 
nomics was  prepared  by  Mrs.  Richards.  In  1886 
she  employed  Mr.  Charles  R.  Allen,  of  the  Massa- 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT      297 

chusetts  State  Board  of  Education,  and  Dr.  A.  H. 
Gill,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
to  make  after  her  design  charts  to  show  graphically 
the  chemical  composition  of  food  materials,  and  a 
series  of  blocks  to  show  the  composition  of  the  human 
body.  She  had  them  make,  also,  sets  of  bottles  con- 
taining the  actual  amount  by  weight  of  water,  cellu- 
lose, proteids,  starch,  and  other  substances  in  one 
pound  of  a  given  food.  A  short  time  afterward* 
Mrs.  Richards  gave  an  address  before  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  which 
she  illustrated  by  means  of  this  material.  The  lec- 
ture brought  her  work  to  the  attention  of  Mr.  Charles 
Pratt,  who  was  then  planning  to  open  Pratt  Insti- 
tute, and  he  sent  for  her  to  come  to  Brooklyn  and 
advise  him  with  reference  to  the  work  for  women. 
The  first  Domestic  Science  Laboratory  at  Pratt 
Institute  was  equipped  after  her  plans. 

From  all  this  it  will  be  seen  that  while  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards's  work  in  Home  Economics  had  been  largely 
advisory  and  had  been  performed  during  what  she 
used  to  call  her  "play  times,"  it  embraced  a  certain 
amount  of  formal  teaching  and  a  large  amount  of 
practical  work.  Her  researches,  too,  in  her  own 
special  line,  sanitary  chemistry,  had  at  every  point 
served  to  show  her  the  need  of  a  more  thorough 
preparation  for  home-making  and  had  also  given  her 
an  understanding  of  possible  modifications  in  educa- 
tional methods  that  would  make  this  training  avail- 
able for  all  women. 


298  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Her  preparation  for  the  organization  of  the  Home 
Economics  movement  included  not  only  a  knowledge 
of  the  subject  and  of  the  field  where  it  was  destined 
to  be  useful,  but  also  a  capacity  for  leadership  which 
had  made  itself  manifest  in  other  lines  of  activity, 
and  which  came  into  special  prominence  here  only 
because  this  work  offered  an  exceptionally  promising 
field  for  her  generalship.  She  had  enthusiasm,  and 
the  power  to  inspire  it  in  others.  She  believed  in 
others  and  made  them  believe  in  themselves  and  have 
confidence  in  their  own  ability.  She  rated  them  by 
what  they  could  do  and  not  by  what  they  were  unable 
to  do.  Her  knowledge  of  workers  in  Home  Eco- 
nomics and  related  fields  was  wide  and  her  under- 
standing of  their  powers  and  capabilities  deep.  Many 
of  them  she  had  discovered  for  herself  at  times  when 
they  were  trying  to  decide  upon  a  life  work,  had  been 
suddenly  thrown  upon  their  own  resources,  or  were 
trying  to  regain  a  place  in  the  world's  work  after 
having  been  set  aside  by  sickness  or  discouraged  by 
failure.  Her  capacity  for  establishing  intimate,  per- 
sonal relationships  where  others  would  at  the  best 
have  formed  only  casual  acquaintances  was  unlimited. 
An  introduction  after  a  lecture  or  at  a  reception, 
with  a  brief  word  from  a  person  as  to  her  hopes, 
her  difficulties,  her  aspirations,  was  sufficient.  Hence- 
forth Mrs.  Richards  had  that  person  on  her  mind. 
She  sought  news  of  her  progress,  thought  of  her 
when  she  was  asked  to  recommend  workers,  sent  her 
literature  or  helpful  suggestions. 


HOME  ECONOMICS  MOVEMENT      299 

Others  had  recognized  the  educational  need  which 
Home  Economics  was  to  fill  and  scattered  forces  had 
been  set  in  motion.  Mrs.  Richards  went  further. 
She  planned  a  campaign,  and  through  the  force  of 
her  own  personal  influence  organized  a  body  of  work- 
ers and  moved  them  forward  a  solid  front. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FULLNESS    OF    LIFE 

A  PERIOD  characterized  not  so  much  by  new  forms 
of  service  as  by  enlarging  influence,  brought  to  a 
close  a  working  life  in  which  increasing  power  had 
succeeded  in  finding  enlarging  opportunities  and 
increasing  fitness  to  teach  an  enlarging  audience. 
This  larger  audience  was  secured  chiefly  through 
lecturing  and  writing. 

During  the  last  fifteen  years  of  her  life,  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards's  literary  output  was  very  great.  Besides  sci- 
entific papers  and  magazine  articles  and  published 
addresses,  she  wrote  the  following  books:  "The  Cost 
of  Living,"  in  1899;  "The  Cost  of  Food,"  in  1901  ; 
"First  Lessons  in  Food  and  Diet"  and  "The  Art 
of  Right  Living,"  in  1904,  and  "The  Cost  of 
Shelter,"  in  1905;  "Sanitation  in  Daily  Life,"  in 
1907;  "The  Cost  of  Cleanness,"  in  1908;  "Indus- 
trial Water  Analysis,"  in  1908;  "Euthenics,"  in 
1910;  and  "Conservation  by  Sanitation,"  in  1911. 

In  writing  these  books  she  had  two  distinct  pur- 
poses. The  first  was  to  record  successful  instances 
of  the  application  of  science  to  the  problems  of  daily 
life,  and  the  second  was  to  plead  for  further  appli- 

300 


FULLNESS  OF  LIFE  301 

cation.  They  embody  a  large  amount  of  information 
gained  from  extensive  reading,  practical  experience, 
and  travel,  and  are  peculiarly  suggestive  and  stimu- 
lating. Their  style  is  vigorous  and  forceful  rather 
than  finished.  The  chief  criticism  made  upon  them 
was  with  reference,  not  to  their  subject  matter,  but 
to  their  arrangement.  The  wish  was,  in  fact,  often 
expressed  that  she  would  spend  more  time  in  revision 
even  at  the  expense  of  producing  less.  Her  writing, 
however,  was  the  result  of  a  deliberate  plan  on  her 
part.  She  wanted  her  influence  to  go  toward  keep- 
ing people  thinking  and  doing,  and  with  this  in  view 
she  thought  that  time  spent  in  polishing  was  wasted. 
"Keep  thinking,"  she  would  often  put  at  the  end 
of  a  letter,  and  after  reading  one  of  her  stimulating 
books  it  is  easy  to  see  in  imagination  these  two 
words  written  at  the  close.  She  was  willing  to  accept 
criticism  if  she  could  only  render  the  service  which 
she  thought  most  needed  at  the  given  time. 

She  wrote  much  also  that  was  embodied  in  other 
publications  than  her  own.  She  made  valuable  con- 
tributions to  the  reports  of  the  Commission  on 
Country  Life,  and  to  the  Report  on  National  Vital- 
ity prepared  by  Dr.  Irving  Fisher  for  the  Committee 
of  One  Hundred  on  Public  Health;  wrote  a  section 
on  "Domestic  Waste"  for  the  Report  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Commission  on  Cost  of  Living;  contributed 
several  articles  on  "The  Farm  Home  a  Center  of 
Sanitary  and  Social  Progress,"  to  Dean  L.  H. 
Bailey's  "Cyclopedia  of  American  Agriculture." 


302  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

Because  of  its  bearing  on  the  relation  of  the 
domestic  service  problem  to  the  labor  movement, 
the  report  of  the  Household  Aid  Company,  of 
Boston,  which  she  helped  to  prepare  during  this 
period,  has  special  importance. 

The  Household  Aid  Company  was  organized  in 
1903  for  the  purpose  of  providing  private  families 
with  skilled  help  by  the  day  or  hour,  and  of  "study- 
ing at  first-hand  the  problems  of  household  labor." 
Shortly  after  it  was  formed,  Mrs.  Richards  said  in 
an  address:  "We  none  of  us  claim  that  we  have 
found  the  right  new  way,  but  we  are  sure  that  every 
honest  attempt  to  cut  a  path  will  help  just  so  much. 
Light  cannot  come  at  once  in  so  great  a  revolution, 
but  it  will  come  sooner  for  the  efforts  made.  This 
little  experiment  is  started,  not  to  help  twenty  or 
forty  families  to  live  more  fashionably  or  more  eco- 
nomically, not  to  give  work  to  twenty  picked  women, 
but  to  establish  a  great  principle  for  future  prac- 
tical use.  Its  breadth  entitles  it  to  come  legitimately 
under  an  educational  head." 

"It  is  misunderstood,"  she  said,  "because  the 
public  assumes  that  an  attempt  is  being  made  to 
ameliorate  present  conditions.  Disabuse  your  minds 
of  that.  The  conditions  are  beneath  us,  dragging  us 
under;  the  sooner  we  cut  the  ropes  the  quicker  we 
shall  rise  to  the  surface.  This  is  my  own  message, 
true  or  false.  It  is  my  belief  that  we  are  done  with 
the  domestic  service  ideas  of  twenty  years  since.  We 


FULLNESS  OF  LIFE  303 

must,  however,  have  knowledge  and  patience  to  try 
and  try  again." 

Mrs.  Richards  had  an  active  part  in  the  enter- 
prise from  the  beginning,  but  her  most  important 
contribution  was  its  report,  which  has  frequently 
been  commended  for  the  conciseness  and  clearness 
with  which  it  presents,  not  only  the  work  of  the 
company,  but  also  the  social  conditions  which  were 
revealed  by  the  experiment.  Others  cooperated  with 
her  in  preparing  it,  but  if  it  had  not  been  for  her 
initiative,  the  work  would  have  passed  unrecorded 
and  its  results  would  have  been  largely  lost  to  the 
world.  The  story  of  the  undertaking  is  a  good  illus- 
tration of  what  has  been  called  her  "tonic"  literary 
style,  and  it  embodies  very  many  of  the  shrewd  yet 
kindly  observations  on  life  and  people  for  which  she 
was  famous,  and  which  some  one  has  said  ought 
to  be  collected  into  a  "Richards's  Philosophy." 

The  report  states  in  full  the  commonly  recognized 
disadvantages  of  household  labor  to  the  worker  and 
the  ways  in  which  they  were  to  be  met  by  the  com- 
pany :  Required  residence  in  the  house  of  her  em- 
ployer is  not  satisfactory  to  a  self-respecting  girl, 
therefore  a  house  was  to  be  secured,  furnished,  and 
run  for  twenty  Aids  as  their  home,  not  a  mere  lodg- 
ing place.  Hours  of  work  were  long  and  indefinite, 
therefore  the  Aids  were  to  go  out  for  a  definite  period 
only.  Lack  of  congenial  companionship  and  recrea- 
tion was  to  be  met  by  making  the  home  life  attrac- 


tfO-t  ELLEN    H.  RICHARDS 

five;  and  injustice  in   the  demands   for  service  by 
mediation  on  the  part  of  the  company. 

Certain  equally  well-recognized  disadvantages  on 
the  part  of  the  employer — scarcity  of  workers,  low 
grade  of  intelligence  and  of  skill,  unreliability, 
danger  of  infection  when  outside  help  is  brought  into 
the  house,  and  the  necessity  for  frequent  changes  — 
were,  according  to  the  report,  to  be  met  by  estab- 
lishing an  educational  test,  by  requiring  six  weeks 
of  training,  by  investigations  of  complaints,  by  a 
sanitarily  conducted  home,  and  by  the  maintenance 
of  a  reserve  group  of  employees. 

In  August,  1903,  a  house  was  opened  as  an  office 
for  the  company  and  a  home  for  the  Aids.  It  was 
decided  to  receive  young  women  only  after  a  pro- 
bationary pericd  of  two  weeks,  and  to  require  that 
they  be  seventeen  years  of  age  and  have  a  grammar 
school  education  or  its  equivalent.  The  plan  was 
to  give  six  weeks'  training  and  have  the  workers 
available  by  October,  when  the  demand  would  be 
most  active.  Miss  Ellen  A.  Huntington,  a  graduate 
of  Pratt  Institute  and  of  the  Household  Science 
Department  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  was  chosen 
as  director. 

Financially  the  plan  was  a  failure,  and  it  was 
abandoned  at  the  end  of  two  years,  when  the  com- 
pany had  lost  five  thousand  dollars  ;  but  in  the  course 
of  the  work  many  interesting  facts  were  brought 
out  concerning  the  character  of  household  service 


FULLNESS  OF  LIFE  805 

demanded  "in  this  free  and  democratic  country": 
the  inability  of  employers  to  appreciate  good  serv- 
ice, and  their  unwillingness  to  pay  for  it;  and  the 
peculiar  difficulties  attending  such  a  solution  of  the 
domestic  service  problem  as  the  company  contem- 
plated. These  facts  are  so  set  forth  in  the  report 
as  to  make  it  invaluable  for  those  who  are  seeking 
light  upon  this  peculiar  aspect  of  the  labor  problem. 

Another  undertaking  into  which  Mrs.  Richards 
entered  during  the  later  years  of  her  life  was  the 
Health-Education  League  of  Boston,  which  pub- 
lishes booklets  selling  for  from  two  to  ten  cents 
apiece  and  disseminates  information  about  hygiene 
and  sanitation  by  means  of  lectures.  The  story  of 
her  connection  with  this  organization  is  best  told 
in  the  minutes  of  the  first  annual  meeting  held  after 
her  death : 

"Whatever  success  we  have  won  or  good  we  have 
done  is  due  in  large  measure  to  Mrs.  Richards's 
wise  counsel,  self-sacrificing  labors,  and  splendid 
enthusiasm.  She  took  an  active  and  leading  part 
in  the  organization  of  our  Society  and  was  Chair- 
man of  our  Board  of  Directors  from  the  start.  She 
was  present  at  almost  every  meeting  of  our  execu- 
tive committee  for  nearly  seven  years.  Of  the 
twenty-one  booklets  that  we  have  thus  far  published, 
she  wrote  five  herself,  and  made  the  remainder  more 
valuable  by  her  suggestions.  She  gave  many  lee- 


306  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

tures  for  us  without  pay,  and  on  one  or  two  occa- 
sions when  she  was  paid,  she  gave  us  the  whole 
amount  for  the  extension  of  the  work. 

"Beside  writing  the  booklets,  it  was  her  custom 
when  lecturing  in  different  parts  of  the  country  to 
distribute  hundreds  of  copies  free,  after  paying  for 
them  out  of  her  own  purse. 

"For  a  long  time  she  desired  to  do  something 
more  to  help  the  great  army  of  workers  in  shops 
and  factories,  and  when  she  was  stricken  she  was 
engaged  in  preparing  a  booklet  on  Industrial 
Hygiene/' 

During  these  last  years  she  continued  to  serve 
as  expert  in  water  analysis,  examining  the  water 
supply  of  many  large  corporations  and  also  those 
of  private  estates,  and  giving  advice  with  reference 
to  new  supplies.  She  was  frequently  consulted,  also, 
with  reference  to  the  food  of  institutions,  and  dur- 
ing the  last  three  years  af  her  life,  according  to  her 
own  testimony,  she  "gave  advice  on  the  subject  of 
foods  in  nearly  two  hundred  institutions  and  acted 
as  general  sanitary  adviser  to  two  scores  of  cor- 
porations and  schools/'  During  these  years,  also, 
she  was  serving  as  chairman  of  the  Hygiene  Com- 
mittee of  the  Boston  School  and  Home  Association. 
She  was  constantly  consulted,  too,  with  reference 
to  school  lunches,  and  particularly  with  reference  to 
the  feeding  of  anaemic  children  in  connection  with 
the  campaign  against  tuberculosis. 


FULLNESS  OF  LIFE  307 

During  all  this  time,  too,  she  was  making  fre- 
quent trips  through  the  country,  speaking  before 
schools  and  classes  in  Home  Economics  and  giving 
advice  about  the  development  of  this  branch  of 
instruction. 

The  longest  trips  of  her  later  years  were  to 
Mexico  in  1901  and  to  Alaska  in  1903.  On  both 
of  these  trips  she  took  a  portable  water  laboratory 
and  examined  the  water  supplies  of  many  out-of-the- 
way  places,  making  studies  of  future  possibilities. 
The  results  were  published  in  The  Proceedings  of 
the  American  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers  and 
in  The  Technology  Quarterly.  Her  unfailing  inter- 
est in  all  phases  of  life  is  shown  by  her  diaries,  from 
which  the  following  notes  are  taken: 

"November  6,  1901.  Las  Cruces.  Tired;  not  up 
very  early ;  out  to  river  for  water ;  women  washing. 
Took  an  hour's  drive  to  the  silver  mines.  Wonder- 
ful views  all  the  way,  surrounded  by  mountains  red 
and  rugged.  Green  valley  with  huge  trees,  green 
plain,  Costilla,  cactus,  Turk's-head,  huge  prickly 
pears,  and  many  desert  flowers,  jack  rabbits,  lizards, 
goats,  burros.  Stone  shelters  way  up  on  the  moun- 
tain where  we  got  good  specimens  of  minerals.  The 
train  disappeared  so  Miss  Hyams  and  I  took  a  mule 
train — balky  mule — to  cathedral  and  shops." 

While  in  Mexico  she  attended  a  bull  fight  because 
it  was  in  honor  of  the  American  Institute  of  Mining 
Engineers,  which  was  in  session.  She  did  not  care 


#08  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

for  this  form  of  entertainment,  but  there  were  some 
things  which  she  disliked  more,  as  the  following 
entries  in  her  diary  show: 

"November  6,  1901.  Went  to  bull  fight  because 
it  was  in  our  honor.  There  were  four  bulls,  two  of 
which  were  killed.  Horrid!" 

"November  8,  1901.  Torreon.  Old  town,  so 
squalid,  vile  odors,  rags,  beggars.  Beyond  descrip- 
tion. Narrow,  steep,  dirty  streets.  Worn  foot 
stones,  five  centuries  old.  A  nightmare,  worse  than 
the  bull  fight." 

It  was  during  these  last  years  that  she  developed 
an  idea  of  instructive  inspection  in  connection  with 
sanitary  projects.  When  one  of  the  Boston  papers 
asked  her  to  contribute  to  a  symposium  upon  what 
might  be  done  with  Boston's  share  of  the  money 
which  the  Government  was  proposing  to  spend  on 
battleships,  she  outlined  a  plan  for  the  disposal  of 
waste  which  involved  appropriations  for  crematory, 
modern  forms  of  containers  and  wagons,  and  also 
for  a  full  corps  of  inspectors  whose  duties  should 
be  those  of  the  educator  as  well  as  those  of  the 
policeman. 

One  project  that  Mrs.  Richards  had  in  mind  at 
the  time  of  her  death  was  the  publication  of  the 
Louisa  M.  Alcott  Club  Leaflets,  which  should  treat 
of  subjects  connected  writh  sanitation  and  enlight- 
ened housekeeping  methods  in  the  simple  way  in 


FULLNESS  OF  LIFE  309 

which  the  Rumford  Kitchen  Leaflets  had  presented 
the  matter  of  food.  The  Louisa  M.  Alcott  Club 
owes  its  existence  to  Mrs.  Richards's  habit  of  medi- 
tation in  the  early  morning  hours.  Ideas  came  which 
she  used  to  call  her  "visions,"  and  many  of  these  she 
hastily  jotted  down,  to  be  put  into  being  later.  A 
word  to  Miss  Isabel  Hyams,  in  regard  to  adapting 
the  principles  and  practice  of  Domestic  Science  to 
the  child's  intellectual  growth  and  his  physical  devel- 
opment, led  to  the  establishment  of  graded  courses 
with  equipment  for  children  ranging  in  age  from 
four  to  fifteen  years.  This  work  has  served  as  a 
model  for  other  settlements  and  schools  in  many 
cities,  and  an  exhibit  sent  to  the  Fifth  International 
Congress  on  Tuberculosis  in  1905,  entitled,  "Laws 
of  Hygiene  Taught  through  Domestic  Science  and 
Nature  Study  to  children  from  four  to  sixteen  years 
old  (as  a  means  of  prevention  of  tuberculosis),"  was 
awarded  a  special  silver  medal  and  diploma. 

Toward  the  last,  honors  came  thick  and  fast,  or 
shall  we  say  that  she  had  throughout  a  long  life 
of  faithful  service  honored  herself,  and,  as  she  neared 
the  end,  others  made  public  recognition  of  these 
honors. 

In  1907  she  was  made  honorary  life  member  of 
the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae,  at  its  annual 
meeting  in  Denver. 

In  October,  1910,  when  Dr.  Marion  L.  Burton 
was  installed  as  president  of  Smith  College,  honorary 


310  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

degrees  were  conferred  upon  nine  American  women. 
Of  these,  seven  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Humanities;  and  two,  Florence  R.  Sabin  of  Johns 
Hopkins  and  Mrs.  Richards,  received  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Science.  The  degree  was  conferred  upon 
Mrs.  Richards  in  the  following  words : 

"Ellen  Henrietta  Richards,  Bachelor  and  Master 
of  Arts  of  Vassar  College,  Bachelor  of  Science  of 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  and 
there  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century  instructor 
in  Sanitary  Chemistry.  By  investigations  into  the 
explosive  properties  of  oils  and  in  the  analysis  of 
water,  and  by  expert  knowledge  relating  to  air,  food, 
water,  sanitation,  and  the  cost  of  food  and  shelter, 
set  forth  in  numerous  publications  and  addresses, 
she  has  largely  contributed  to  promote  in  the  com- 
munity the  serviceable  arts  of  safe,  healthful,  and 
economic  living." 

On  January  7,  1911,  the  Association  of  the 
Women  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy gave  a  luncheon  in  Mrs.  Richards's  honor,  and 
presented  her  with  a  purse  of  one  thousand  dollars 
for  research  work.  For  this  occasion  a  booklet  was 
published  containing  a  picture  of  Mrs.  Richards  in 
her  academic  costume,  and  a  large  number  of  pithy 
sayings  collected  from  her  writings. 

A  growing  pallor  and  shortness  of  breath,  which 
friends  afterwards  realized  were  signs  of  the  ap- 


FULLNESS  OF  LIFE  311 

preaching  end,  were  the  only  indications  of  increas- 
ing physical  weakness.  The  three  long  flights  of 
stairs  leading  to  her  office  in  the  Institute  of 
Technology  seemed  for  the  first  time  to  tax  her 
strength.  Her  associates  begged  her  to  use  the  ele- 
vator, which,  though  specially  intended* for  carrying 
laboratory  supplies,  was  often  used  to  save  the 
strength  of  those  much  younger  than  she.  But  she 
refused  all  such  assistance,  and  went  bravely  forward 
on  her  accustomed  way,  relaxing  in  no  degree  her 
stern  discipline  of  self. 

During  August,  1910,  seven  months  before  her 
death,  there  was  a  sharp  attack  of  sickness  one  night 
when  Professor  Richards  was  out  of  town,  and  there 
was  no  one  in  the  house  to  realize  the  seriousness 
of  the  indications.  She  was  at  work  the  following 
day,  giving  no  sign  of  what  had  happened  except  in 
a  brief  note  pinned  to  the  wall  of  her  office  giving 
the  name  of  the  physician  who  was  to  be  called  in 
case  of  sudden  sickness. 

At  the  St.  Louis  Convention  of  the  Home  Eco- 
nomics Association,  held  in  December,  she  was  her 
most  active  and  forceful  self,  though  looking  worn. 
When  the  convention  was  over,  instead  of  resting 
as  many  younger  members  did,  she  looked  about 
her  for  a  theater  companion.  The  following  day  she 
made  a  trip  of  inspection  to  the  settling  tanks  along 
the  Mississippi  River,  and  then  sped  on  her  way  to 
Boston.  On  the  train  she  had  no  thought  of  rest- 
ing, for  there  were  those  who  had  been  absent  from 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

the  meeting  and  must  be  told  about  its  transactions 
for  friendship's  sake. 

About  the  middle  of  January,  1911,  she  went  to 
New  York  to  deliver  an  address  before  the  Home 
Economics  Association  of  Greater  New  York  at  its 
annual  luncheon.  She  chose  as  the  title,  "The  Con- 
servation of  Human  Energy,"  and  spoke  with  her 
usual  vigor,  urging  again  the  message  which  her 
whole  life  had  carried:  "Subject  the  material  world 
to  the  higher  ends  by  understanding  it  in  all  its 
relations  to  daily  life  and  action." 

At  the  time  of  this  visit  to  New  York,  she  called 
an  Executive  Committee  meeting  of  the  American 
Home  Economics  Association,  and  she  seemed  to  take 
special  pains  to  make  it  satisfactory  so  far  as  work 
was  concerned  and  to  make  it  unusually  gay  and 
cheerful  in  social  intercourse,  as  if  she  knew  it  might 
be  the  last  and  wished  the  memory  of  it  to  be  pleasant. 

About  February  1  she  began  the  preparation  of 
an  important  paper  on  "The  Elevation  of  Applied 
Science  to  the  Rank  of  the  Learned  Professions" 
for  the  semi-centennial  celebration  of  the  granting 
of  the  charter  to  the  Institute  of  Technology.  This 
paper  was  finished  just  before  her  death  and  pub- 
lished in  full  in  one  of  the  daily  papers  of  Boston 
on  the  day  of  her  funeral. 

On  Friday  night,  March  17,  she  lectured  at  the 
Universalist  church  in  Haverhill.  As  the  church  was 
but  a  stone's  throw  from  the  house  where  she  was 


FULLNESS  OF  LIFE 

being  entertained,  it  was  not  thought  necessary  to 
order  a  carriage.  On  the  way  to  the  lecture  she  was 
seized  with  a  violent  spasm  of  pain,  and  was  obliged 
to  rest  for  some  time  on  the  road  before  she  was 
able  to  go  on;  but  when  it  was  over  she  insisted  on 
carrying  out  her  part  of  the  program,  and  lectured 
as  if  in  perfect  physical  health. 

The  following  Sunday  she  gave  an  address  in  Ford 
Hall,  Boston,  in  a  course  of  lectures  conducted  by 
the  Baptist  Social  Union,  selecting  as  the  subject, 
"Is  the  Increased  Cost  of  Living  a  Sign  of  Social 
Advance?"  In  the  address  she  showed  that  the  high 
c::st  of  living  was  due  to  a  growing  love  of  pleasur- 
able sensations  and  to  a  habit  of  speeding  up  life  all 
along  the  line,  and  urged  that  unless  there  is  a  high 
and  noble  purpose  behind  it  all,  it  marks  no  advance. 
The  audiences  at  these  lectures  have  a  character  of 
their  own,  being  composed  largely  of  those  who  are 
wedded  firmly  to  one  plan  or  another  of  social  re- 
form, and  are  ready  to  defend  their  creeds  with 
vigor.  While  the  lecturer  is  speaking  there  is  a  sense 
of  repressed  activity,  and  at  the  close  a  volley  of 
questions.  Safety-valves  we  have  learned  to  call 
such  meetings,  and  have  grown  accustomed  to  recog- 
ni/e  their  value  for  this  purpose.  Mrs.  Richards 
WHS  in  no  physical  condition  to  meet  the  interroga- 
tions which  continued  for  nearly  an  hour,  but  her 
mind  was  as  alert  as  ever,  for  her  answers  came 
prompt  and  to  the  point.  This  was  her  last  public 
address. 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

The  following  day  she  was  in  her  laboratory  and 
again  on  Tuesday,  but  for  the  last  time.  Wednesday 
and  Thursday  she  was  at  home,  but  as  she  had  no 
definite  engagements,  it  was  not  necessary  to  explain 
to  Professor  Richards  why  she  did  not  leave  the 
house.  Always  mindful  of  him,  and  wishing  him  to 
have  his  thoughts  free  for  his  work,  she  concealed 
from  him  the  fact  that  she  was  suffering.  On  Thurs- 
day night,  for  the  first  time,  he  learned  that  some- 
thing was  wrong  when  she  took  a  little  bell  from 
the  mantelshelf  in  the  dining  room,  saying  that  she 
might  need  him  during  the  night.  During  the  night 
the  call  came.  A  physician  was  summoned  and  pro- 
nounced the  trouble  angina  pectoris.  There  followed 
a  week's  struggle,  during  which  hope  alternated  with 
fear  among  those  who  watched  with  her,  and  dur- 
ing which  her  thought  was  constantly  for  others. 
Wednesday  morning  she  seemed  to  have  gained 
strength,  and  summoning  her  secretaries,  one  at  a 
time,  she  gave  them  directions  about  her  work.  One 
she  asked  to  go  down  town  and  buy  a  wicker  couch 
on  which  she  could  be  carried  into  her  study,  there 
to  direct  the  work  of  her  assistants.  Thursday 
morning  she  seemed  even  stronger,  but  during  the 
day  began  to  sink,  and  at  twenty-five  minutes  after 
nine  on  the  evening  of  March  30,  1911,  she  died. 

On  Sunday  there  was  a  service  for  the  family  at 
her  home,  followed  by  a  public  service  at  Trinity 
Church,  where  the  religious  exercises  of  the  Institute 


FULLNESS  OF  LIFE  315 

of  Technology  are  held.  Beautiful  Trinity!  And 
never  more  beautiful  than  that  day  when  the  chancel 
overflowed  with  the  flowers  she  loved.  At  the  close  of 
the  service  the  casket  was  rolled  to  the  west  door 
of  the  church,  and  those  who  had  gathered  to  do  her 
honor  saw  her  last  bathed  in  the  glory  of  the  setting 
sun. 

The  final  service  was  at  the  Crematory  in  Forest 
Hills  Cemetery,  and  the  burial  was  in  the  Richards's 
family  cemetery  in  Gardiner,  Maine. 

Dead  at  sixty-eight?  No,  say  rather  alive,  and 
abundantly  alive,  for  sixty-eight  years,  and  into  that 
brief  span  pressing  the  labors  of  a  century. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

STILL,    LEADING    OX 

IN  a  world  and  in  an  age  in  which  there  is  a 
temptation  to  grasp  and  to  acquire  material  things, 
to  demand  the  service  of  others  for  one's  own  selfish 
advantage,  and  to  claim  honor  and  credit,  Mrs.  Rich- 
ards succeeded  in  living  a  life  in  which  the  current 

p  was  all  the  other  way.  She  was  the  center  of  a  great 
outpouring.  She  demanded  no  service  of  others,  but 
gave  it  unstintingly  herself;  she  sought  knowledge 
only  that  she  might  give  it  back  to  the  world  in 
helpfulness ;  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  had 
earned  a  substantial  income  for  many  years,  she  died 
with  no  money  except  that  which  had  been  given  her 
a  few  weeks  before  for  research  work,  and  which 
she  had  not  had  time  to  use. 

For  the  peculiarly  outgoing  quality  of  her  life, 
we  must  thank  those  unseen  powers  which  determine 
what  our  inner  impulses  shall  be;  but  for  the  abun- 
dance of  her  service  and  for  its  fine  adjustment  to 

\  the  needs  of  her  times,  we  must  look  to  her  own 
splendid  determination  to  set  no  limit  or  bound  to 
her  labors  and  to  her  patient,  unremitting  efforts 
to  multiply  the  talents  which  she  had  received. 

316 


STILL  LEADING  OX  317 

She  once  said,  in  speaking  of  her  life,  that  she 
had  tried  to  show  what  an  average  American  woman 
could  accomplish.  As  to  whether  or  not  she  was 
an  average  person,  with  the  average  opportunities 
of  a  woman  of  her  period,  opinions  will  differ.  She 
certainly  was  below  the  average  in  the  physical  vigor 
with  which  she  was  endowed  by  nature,  and  such 
beauty  as  she  had  seemed  rather  the  outward  con- 
formation to  the  demands  of  a  strong,  sweet  spirit 
than  a  mere  matter  of  form  and  color. 

Since  she  had  no  great  endowment  of  strength, 
it  would  not  have  been  strange  if  her  great  public 
labors  had  been  at  the  expense  of  attention  to  those 
little  matters  which  make  life  sweet  and  gracious, 
but  in  some  way  she  found  time  for 

"...  the  whole  sweet  round 
Of  littles  which  great  life  compound." 

From  the  stories  of  her  "deeds  of  week-day  kindness" 
which  poured  in  after  her  death,  volumes  might  be 
written.  The  daughter  of  an  old  friend  wrote  that 
she  had  told  Mrs.  Richards  casually  in  June  that  she 
was  to  enter  Vassar  College  in  September,  and  had 
not  seen  her  again  nor  had  any  communication  with 
her  before  college  opened.  Then  she. found  on  every 
hand  that  welcome  had  been  prepared  for  her  through 
Mrs.  Richards's  thoughtfulness.  A  distant  cousin, 
whom  Mrs.  Richards  had  not  seen  since  she  was  a 
child,  came  from  the  West  to  study  art  in  New  York. 
Mrs.  Richards  gave  her  letters  of  introduction,  and, 


318  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

as  the  cousin  discovered  years  afterwards,  sent  money 
to  several  friends  to  be  spent  in  providing  the 
stranger  with  amusements  and  diversion  during  the 
first  weeks  of  absence  from  home.  A  teacher  known 
to  Mrs.  Richards  only  as  hundreds  of  others  are, 
moved  to  Jamaica  Plain,  expecting  to  make  her 
presence  known  after  she  had  become  settled,  but 
early  the  next  morning  Mrs.  Richards  was  at  her 
doorstep,  a  pot  of  hyacinths  in  her  hand,  and  a 
welcome  to  Jamaica  Plain  on  her  lips. 

She  had  a  way  of  remembering  not  only  her 
friends,  but  her  friends'  friends,  even  though  they 
were  quite  unknown  to  her  personally,  and  particu- 
larly if  they  were  old,  sick,  or  in  trouble.  It  was 
for  this  friendliness  once-removed  that  her  friends 
hold  her  in  tenderest  affection. 

The  birthdays  of  her  friends  were  never  forgotten. 
"True  to  the  day  and  hour,  the  greeting  from  you 
comes  to  my  hand,"  one  friend  expressed  it.  Nor 
was  the  welcome  for  the  coming  baby  ever  forgotten, 
even  in  her  busiest  moments:  "It  was  more  than  kind 
of  you,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  preparations  for  your 
journey,  to  think  of  me  and  the  little  one  that  is 
coming.  I  could  not  have  been  more  surprised  and 
pleased  than  when  I  received  your  letter  and  the 
package  (a  little  lace  cap)  that  accompanied  it." 

Books  and  magazines  she  showered  abroad  as 
I  liberally  as  she  did  flowers.  Many  a  year  her  orders 
i  to  her  publishers  for  books  that  she  gave  away 


STILL  LEADING  ON  319 

nearly  balanced  her  royalties.  She  always  remem- 
bered the  libraries  in  the  little  towns  where  she  had 
lived  in  girlhood,  or  with  which  she  had  special 
connection.  A  request  from  a  woman's  club  in 
Panama  for  information  about  books  brought  not 
information  alone,  but  a  boxful  of  books  themselves. 
She  had  a  plan  for  all  the  periodicals  for  which  she 
subscribed.  After  they  had  been  read  by  her  they 
were  sent  to  some  friend,  reading  room,  or  club. 

In  spite  of  her  businesslike  attitude  toward  life, 
she  was  sentimental  with  reference  to  anniversaries. 
Two  intimate  Jamaica  Plain  friends  had  birthdays 
that  fell,  one  near  Professor  Richards's  birthday 
and  the  other  near  her  own.  and  with  the  two  yearly 
celebrations  of  the  four  birthdays  nothing  was  ever 
allowed  to  interfere.  These  celebrations  frequently 
took  the  form  of  all-day  excursions  to  the  seashore 
or  to  the  woods,  sometimes  on  foot  and  sometimes 
by  electric  car.  "Eventless  is  your  life?  Then  it  is 
your  fault.  If  you  have  a  good  back  and  twenty 
cents  to  spend,  you  can  make  a  panorama  of  events 
pass  before  you  which,  like  the  biograph,  will  illumine 
hundreds  of  otherwise  dreary  hours." 

Her  beauty  love,  which  was  part  of  her  rich,  full 
life,  went  out  most  spontaneously  to  flowers.  She 
was  interested  in  works  of  art,  but  chiefly  because 
she  believed  that  such  an  interest  had  a  place  in  a 
well-ordered  life,  and  she  wished  to  be  able  to  sym- 
pathize with  it  in  others.  She  could  work  herself 


320  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

up  to  it,  but  it  never  mastered  her.  With  flowers, 
however,  it  was  different.  She  raised  tulips,  hya- 
cinths, and  daffodils  in  profusion  in  her  house  every 
winter,  tending  them  while  they  put  forth  leaf  and 
bud,  and  when  they  had  reached  the  glory  of  full 
bloom,  she  sent  them  broadcast  among  her  friends. 
Part  of  the  ceremony  of  making  Professor  Richards 
comfortable  for  a  long  period  of  work  at  his  desk 
was  to  place  the  best  of  her  flowering  plants  near 
by  for  him  to  see  when  he  looked  up  from  his  books. 
She  understood  the  needs  of  plants  as  she  did  those 
of  people,  and  she  fed  and  watered  and  tended  them 
intelligently,  taking  no  chances.  Her  reward  was 
the  perfection  of  their  beauty. 

She  loved  animals  too,  horses  in.  particular.  But 
she  had  not  time  to  give  a  horse  the  needed  exercise, 
and  for  this  reason  she  seldom  was  able  to  have  one 
of  her  own.  Kittens  came  next  in  her  affection,  but 
they  were  not  in  favor  with  those  who  did  her  house- 
work, so  she  finally  settled  upon  parrots.  Diaz  h:id 
a  short  existence,  but  Carmen  was  a  familiar  house- 
hold figure  for  many  years,  tenderly  and  intelligently 
cared  for. 

She  knew  the  secrets  of  healing.  One  summer, 
when  she  was  taking  a  carriage  trip  with  a  friend 
in  Vermont,  she  stopped  at  a  farmhouse  to  inquire 
the  way,  and  found  that  a  son  in  the  family  had 
just  sprained  his  ankle.  In  the  absence  of  a  physi- 
cian she  gave  the  necessary  first-aid.  A  few  days 


PROFESSOR    AND    MRS.    RICHARDS,    1904 


STILL  LEADING  ON 

later  her  companion,  traveling  that  way,  inquired 
how  the  young  man  was  doing.  The  reply  was, 
"Very  well,  thanks  to  your  friend,  the  trained  nurse." 

Though  she  was  keenly  interested  in  professional 
life  for  women,  she  was  equally  anxious  that,  they 
should  have  happy  homes.  When  a  young  woman 
who  owed  her  professional  training  largely  to 
Mrs.  Richards's  interest  and  generosity  tremblingly 
told  her  that  she  was  going  to  be  married  very  soon, 
Mrs.  Richards  said:  "I  am  glad  of  it.  I  know  him 
and  he  is  too  nice  a  boy  to  keep  waiting." 

She  saw  no  reason,  however,  why  women  should 
lose  their  individuality  in  marriage.  In  writing 
about  marriage  as  it  is  portrayed  in  modern  fiction, 
she  said : 

"This  age  is  one  which  is  dealing  with  personal 
questions  concerning  spheres,  rights,  and  duties,  and 
anything  which  will  warn  from  the  rocks  and  quick- 
sands is  to  be  welcomed.  The  great  majority  of 
marriages  are  getting  to  be  unhappy.  The  artificial 
life  of  our  villages,  with  the  struggles  for  positions 
as  represented  by  clothes  and  service,  is  ruining 
many  a  home.  I  see  so  much  of  it  in  real  life  that 
I  am  glad  if  any  picture  can  be  drawn  which  will 
help  some  to  see  whither  they  are  tending  before 
it  is  too  late. 

"I  believe  this  class  of  fiction  is  more  wholesome 
than  that  which  deals  with  lovers'  trysts  and  escapes 
from  cruel  parents  only  to  live  happy  ever  after, 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

marriage  being  the  sum  and  substance  of  woman's 
ambition,  and  the  end  of  her  life.  It  is  becoming 
recognized  that  woman  has  a  personality  that  is  not 
in  her  husband's  control,  that  the  mere  fact  of 
marrying  him  does  not  make  her  his  devoted  slave." 

To  the  quickness  of  her  perceptions  and  other 
mental  processes  may  be  attributed  not  only  the 
speed  with  which  she  worked,  but  also  the  large 
variety  of  interests  which  she  was  able  to  keep  up. 
Among  her  papers  were  found  rough  notes  she  had 
made  upon  a  slight  earthquake  shock  that  had  been 
felt  in  Jamaica  Plain.  These  notes  had  been  copied 
and  sent  to  an  authority  upon  seismic  disturbances, 
to  serve  as  far  as  one  person's  observations  could  to 
determine  the  characteristics  of  the  phenomenon. 
Sitting  alone  in  her  library,  she  had  passed  calmly 
through  this  experience,  and  at  the  close  was  able 
to  report  which  pictures  had  swung  out  from  the 
wall  and  which  had  suffered  most  disturbance. 

From  the  time  when  she  had  kept  the  records  at 
Vassar,  she  was  interested  in  forecasting  the  weather. 
She  always  had  a  full  set  of  weather  maps  on  hand 
and  followed  the  predictions.  Occasionally  she  would 
think  that  the  prophecy  was  wrong,  and  bringing 
out  the  diagrams  for  half  a  dozen  days  back  she 
would  demonstrate  her  belief;  and  it  is  said  that 
when  she  and  the  official  forecaster  differed,  she  was 
quite  as  likely  to  be  right  as  he. 


STILL  LEADING  ON  323 

As  a  result  of  her  many  interests,  conversation 
with  her  was  an  invigorating  mental  gymnastic,  and 
the  reaction  was  usually  a  violent  effort  to  bring 
one's  self  up  to  date.  Her  sister,  Mrs.  Laura  E. 
Richards,  gave  her  the  name  of  "Ellencyclopedia." 
In  the  course  of  a  short  conversation  she  would 
refer  to  this  great  engineering  venture,  that  man  out 
West  who  had  made  such  an  interesting  discovery, 
or  that  woman  in  New  York  who  was  carrying  on 
such  an  important  experiment.  Those  who  talked 
with  her  usually  left  her  presence  determined  to 
"catch  up."  Her  letters,  which  had  an  exhilarating 
quality  about  them  and  always  carried  with  them  an 
impression  of  abiding  loyalty,  were  best  described 
by  the  friend  who  wrote  to  her,  "Your  letters  are 
like  a  breath  of  the  ocean  and  a  glimpse  of  the 
everlasting  hills." 

Even  after  due  allowance  has  been  made  for  her 
quickness,  there  is  a  temptation  to  say  that  the 
way  in  which  she  managed  to  do  so  many  little  as 
well  as  so  many  great  things  cannot  be  explained, 
but  it  is  wiser  to  admit  that  it  can  be  explained  in 
part.  She  had  no  more  hours  in  a  day  or  days  in  a 
year  than  other  people,  and  the  fact  that  she  appar- 
ently had  more  at  her  disposal  was  the  result  of 
thought  and  planning.  "I  wish  I  were  triplets," 
she  once  said,  and  being  unable  to  carry  out  this 
wish,  she  did  the  next  best  thing — tried  to  treble 
the  amount  of  her  available  energy  and  time.  She 


ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

was  up  and  had  breakfasted  and  taken  a  walk  or 
a  bicycle  ride  around  Jamaica  Pond  before  most 
people  were  out  of  their  beds.  She  used  to  claim, 
half  in  fun,  a  peculiarly  life-giving  quality  in  air 
upon  which  the  sun  was  shining.  "The  elixir  of  life 
is  said  to  be  most  abundant  in  connection  with  the 
oxygen  of  air  in  motion  on  which  the  sun  is  shining." 
She  was  up,  therefore,  with  the  sun  or  before  it,  all 
the  year  around. 

She  saved  time,  too,  by  her  quick  decisions.  When, 
for  example,  she  received  a  letter,  she  almost  invari- 
ably knew  by  the  time  she  had  read  it  once  what  she 
was  going  to  do  with  it,  or  what  action  it  called  for, 
and  she  never  handled  it  again.  She  made  a  hiero- 
glyphic on  the  envelope,  which  indicated  to  her  the 
character  of  the  answer  to  be  given  and  the  dispo- 
sition of  the  letter.  Her  handwriting,  too,  was  labor- 
saving.  It  was  not  beautiful  and  many  of  the  words 
were  only  half-formed.  The  saving  came  in  leaving 
off  the  obvious.  If  the  only  way  in  which  a  word 
could  possibly  end  and  make  sense  in  a  given  connec- 
tion was  in  "ing"  or  "en,"  she  saw  no  use  of  form- 
ing these  endings.  If  "wh"  could  mean  only  "what" 
and  not  "who"  nor  "whose"  in  a  given  place,  it 
served  as  well  as  the  full  word.  And  her  small  draw- 
ings introduced  here  and  there  in  her  letters  often 
saved  many  sentences.  For  example,  in  one  letter, 
after  she  had  said  of  two  organizations  which  she 
was  supporting,  but  not  very  enthusiastically,  "They 


FACSIMILE    OF    A     LETTER     WRITTEN     IN     1911 


STILL  LEADING  ON  325 

are  plodding  on  successfully,  but  without  any  great 
object,"  she  made  a  line  of  dots  which  moved  bravely 
forward  for  about  an  inch  in  a  horizontal  line,  and 
then  suddenly  curved  upward  and  backward  upon 
themselves. 

Her  efficiency  was  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  she 
wasted  no  energy  in  vain  regrets.  Her  yesterdays 
she  put  well  behind  her,  except  so  far  as  they  might 
serve  for  guidance  in  the  future.  Impatience  came 
nearer  than  vain  regrets  to  retarding  her  progress. 
She  wanted  to  see  things  accomplished,  and  when 
she  was  irritable  it  was  usually  with  some  one 
whom  she  thought  to  be  dawdling.  She  understood 
herself  in  this  respect,  and  not  long  before  the  end 
she  said  significantly  that  real  happiness  had  come 
to  her  only  when  she  had  learned  to  put  seed  into 
the  ground  and  then  wait  twenty  years  for  it  to 
spring  up. 

She  regretted  the  foibles,  fears,  and  inconsistencies 
which  she  believed  were  handicapping  women  in  their 
work,  and  sought  to  free  herself  from  them  as  far 
as  possible.  She  often  preached  against  them,  too. 
The  absence  of  pockets  she  never  forgot  to  mention 
when  she  heard  women  demanding  their  rights.  To 
a  friend  who  held  a  professorship  in  a  college  she 
wrote:  "What  is  this  I  hear?  Fainting  away  like 
a  silly  schoolgirl?  Fie  on  you!  What  is  the  matter 
with  your  cook?  Take  beef  three  times  a  day  for 
a  fortnight  to  tone  yourself  up,  and  don't  do  it 


326  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

again.  It  is  fully  as  important  to  keep  in  physical 
condition  as  to  have  a  mental  grasp.  Nowadays  the 
last  card  they  can  trump  up  against  us  is  that  we 
are  not  physically  equal  to  what  we  try  to  do.  The 
more  prominent  we  are,  the  more  closely  they  watch 
us.  Just  now,  too,  when  so  much  is  in  the  air  against 
woman's  education!  Think  of  the  example  for  the 
girls !  Now  I  know  you  are  going  to  be  sensible  and 
learn  just  what  you  can  do  and  what  you  cannot." 

At  another  time  she  said:  "One  of  the  greatest 
faults  of  the  women  of  the  present  time  is  a  silly 
fear  of  things,  and  one  object  of  the  education  of 
girls  should  be  to  give  them  knowledge  of  what  things 
are  really  dangerous." 

With  her  perfect  self-mastery  she  was  sometimes 
considered  unsympathetic  with  human  frailties,  only, 
however,  by  those  who  did  not  know  her  personally, 
and  chiefly  because  she  seldom  joined  in  organized 
efforts  to  help  the  weak.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  she  loved  power,  and  had  a  pleasurable  interest 
in  all  its  manifestations,  except  those  involving 
cruelty,  whether  they  were  of  man  over  matter,  of 
man  over  the  dumb  animals,  or  of  man  over  man. 
She  believed  in  war,  or  at  least  thought  that  prepa- 
ration for  war  involved  helpful  discipline  and  had 
been  the  means  of  utilizing  many  of  the  facts  of 
science  which  peace  had  neglected.  Fellowship  she 
seldom  preached  in  words,  though  unremittingly 
through  her  unnumbered  acts  of  kindness.  It  used 


STILL  LEADING  OX  327 

to  seem  almost  as  if,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she 
was  giving  her  all  for  others,  she  was  afraid  of  put- 
ting her  thoughts  on  the  subject  of  cooperation 
into  words,  lest  she  appear  to  undervalue  the  help 
which  she  believed  the  individual  could  and  should 
give  to  himself,  and  the  self-control  and  the  sense 
of  individual  responsibility  which  she  believed  lay  at 
the  foundation  of  all  progress  and  should  be  the 
end  of  all  education. 

Her  democracy  was  of  the  perfect  kind — not  that 
which  overlooks  differences,  but  that  which  does  not 
see  them;  her  faith,  which  was  simple,  she  once  out- 
lined by  saying  that  she  "believed  in  a  guiding  spirit 
and  tried  to  keep  her  ears  open  to  the  whisperings 
and  her  eyes  clear  for  the  inner  light."  She  had  a 
sense  of  humor  which  "oft  lit  up  gray  eyes  with 
summer  lightnings  of  the  soul,"  and  which  carried 
her  serenely  through  the  stress  and  strain  of  many  a 
difficult  situation. 

Such  was  the  leader's  personality.  Such  a  life 
does  not  lose  its  power  and  vitality  when  it  passes 
away  from  us.  One  catches  here  and  there  glimpses 
of  it  at  work  in  the  life  of  the  world.  In  the  Naples 
Aquarium  laboratories,  American  women  students 
have  for  years  found  place  and  means  for  research 
through  her  efforts  and  those  of  others  in  the  Naples 
Table  Association,  and  her  leadership  is  now  empha- 
sized also  in  the  Association's  Ellen  Richards  Re- 
search Prize.  In  more  than  one  of  the  colleges,  in- 


328  ELLEN  H.  RICHARDS 

structor.s  who  came  from  her  laboratory  are  teaching 
some  branch  of  science  as  applied  to  human  welfare ; 
her  "Euthenics,"  the  science  of  the  environment  con-  . 
trolled  for  right  living,  is  given  increasing  academic 
welcome ;  her  bold  prophecies  and  loyal  struggles  for 
better  living  conditions  attained  through  applica- 
tions of  chemistry,  economics,  science  generally,  find 
fulfillment  in  new  curricula  and  in  increasingly  in- 
telligent public  opinion.  One  striking  testimonial 
to  her  continuing  leadership  is  the  Ellen  Richards 
Home  Economics  Fund  now  forming  to  continue 
unbroken  the  activities  of  research  and  of  propa- 
ganda which  she  initiated  for  the  advancement  of  the 
American  home. 

We  can  trace  her  influence  at  work  in  many  other 
ways  in  schools  and  colleges  and  other  educational 
institutions,  in  scientific  and  popular  societies,  and 
in  the  more  efficient  activities  of  public  agencies  and 
private  undertakings  which  she  touched.  Her  life 
goes  on  in  a  thousand  forms  and  in  a  thousand  places, 
and  the  most  skillful  social  survey  could  not  reveal 
them  all.  To  those  who  knew  her  and  worked  with 
her  there  remains,  moreover,  the  personal  presence 
of  the  leader,  the  counselor,  the  friend,  in  the  labo- 
ratory, at  the  desk,  in  the  conference  room  and  the 
convention  hall — wherever  tasks  must  now  be  faced 
alone  which  once  were  faced  with  her. 


3tt 

ELLEN   H.  RICHARDS 

A  voice  is  hushed:  but  ere  it  failed, 
The  listening  echoes  caught  its  tone, 

And  now  its  message  clear  and  keen 
On  every  wind  of  heaven  is  blown. 

A  staff'  is  broke:  but  ere  it  snapped, 
Those  who  had  leaned  on  it  so  long 

Had  made  its  steadfast  fibre  theirs, 

And  fare  now  forward,  straight  and  strong. 

A  I'ujht  ix  quenched:  but  ere  it  paled, 

It  lit  a  hundred  torches'  flame, 
That  shine  across  the  darkening  sky, 

And  star  with  gold  one  honored  name. 
April,  1911  LAURA  E.   RICHARDS 


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